Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator instructions) Your first question comes from Robert Manowitz – RBS.
Robert Manowitz – RBS
On liquidity, I was a little confused on the wording in your press release regarding what’s actually available to you under the line, is it the $115 that’s [inaudible] or is it the $115 less the $53.4 of letters of credit?
Ernest Scheidemann
It’s the $115 less the letters of credit plus the cash.
Robert Manowitz – RBS
Your comments about the cash balance at the end of the fourth quarter and how there was a timing lag between the collection and the actual pay down of debt, was that true also in the first quarter, should we expect some of that $48 million of cash to have since been channeled toward debt repayment?
Ernest Scheidemann
Some of it could have been and we sort of monitor that regularly, it’s $48, wasn’t as large as we ended the year so some of that might have been.
Robert Manowitz – RBS
Could you give a little bit of detail on the incentives in the tower, you provided lots of detail on the traditional homes and compared it to the fourth quarter and the year earlier period, I was wondering if you could help us understand what’s happening pricing wise in towers.
Jerry Starkey
Sure, on the towers side as we mentioned in Florida we sold about 97 towers and in most of the activity, although the activity was spread throughout most towers in the state that have standing inventory, in many cases we were selling inventory that had previously been impaired with price reductions in the 20-30% area. And so last year a tower may have been selling for $1 million average and a similar tower next door this year is selling for about $700,000.
So that seemed to spurn some activity among those retirees and second homeowners looking to snap up a bargain. In some towers like Bal Harbour where we had defaults, we were actually able to sell, resell, we’ve been reselling the units at prices equal to the original prices and in some cases slightly higher. So again each tower and each community is sort of a unique location. That Bal Harbour location is a pretty special location in a very affluent neighborhood and a wonderful beachfront location with sort of an international jet set destination.
And so the supply has been limited, as Ernie said, we closed 172 of the 185 units so far, 173 and so not a lot of supply but obviously a good value and little if any discounts. In fact, as I said, generally higher prices. But up in the panhandle of Florida we took impairments at the end of the year and marked down that inventory and someone that may have previously paid $600,000 for a unit we’re able to pick up that unit in the $450-$500,000 range.
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