The data has yet to take an upturn, but at least it’s not getting worse. Still, during the depths of the recession some of the homebuilders made some curious decisions about how much warranty expense they expected per new home sold.
The warranty data has yet to turn upwards, however. In the warranty claims totals below, the publicly-held homebuilders reported paying only $66 million in claims in the first quarter of 2012 — their lowest figure ever. Granted, this data covers the coldest and slowest quarter of the year, but the comparable quarter of 2011 showed $70 million in claims and even the recessionary years of 2009 and 2010 showed first-quarter claims totals over $90 million.