And again, we’re hoping to catch up in the field. I mentioned before, right now we have about 1,200 less homes in the field than a year ago. We do expect we’ll put quite a few more houses in the field in the fourth quarter than we did a year ago. And that’ll take some cash also. But the short answer is we will continue to look at stock repurchases as part of what we do for capital.
Alex Barron: Yes, it seems very interesting given that, especially the market doesn’t want to give you and other builders credit, and the stock is trading below one times book. So it seems like a great allocation of capital. But anyway, my next question is, you guys mentioned that your sales went up, I think, north of 80% in September. I wasn’t sure what the actual number was relative to August. So was that actually sequentially higher? Or it just looks bigger because of what happened last year? And if it was higher, was that because you guys did some type of sales event or like what drove that?
Phillip Creek: Alex, as Bob said, the months and the quarter were pretty comparable. Last year we only sold 1,300 homes in the third quarter. We sold about 650 in July and August and a little over 700 in September. We did open a number of stores toward the end of the third quarter. So, I wouldn’t say there was really anything big different months-to-months in there.
Robert Schottenstein: No. I mean, we did have some, end of month promotion that we typically do every September around this time. I think it was largely new communities. I don’t think there’s anything really more to read into that. It was an easier comp also, which skews that somewhat. But relative month-to-month, it was pretty close, certainly within 10%.
Alex Barron: Got it. And if I could ask one more. Some builders are offering money to, I mean, everybody to some degree or other is buying down their rates below market rates. But are you guys using more just money that you give individually to buyers to buy down their rates? Or are you spending more of the money on forward commitments? How are you going about, lowering the interest rate for buyers?
Phillip Creek: Well, I’m going to let Derek answer that because he understands that a lot better than I do. But basically, the short answer is, it’s all done through our mortgage operation at M/I Financial. We don’t give the money to the buyer and let them go market and figure out who to do business with. Derek, if you want to talk about it.
Derek Klutch: Yes, sure, Alex. It’s — and Bob had mentioned earlier, it’s really division by division, and even community by community. And we do a combination of individual interest rate locks and forward commitments. We work with the divisions, what it’s going to take, what the market’s looking for. We don’t — it’s not a one size fits all. We mix it up.
Robert Schottenstein: It’s all done through M/I Financial.
Phillip Creek: All done through M/I Financial with the below market interest rates offered through our mortgage company.
Alex Barron: And is that a large percentage of your buyers that are taking advantage of those types of promotions? Or are there still some people who would rather use the money for something else?
Phillip Creek: Well, one thing I’ll add, Alex, is that when we price our houses, there’s a certain amount always priced in for financing and closing costs. And again, that’s a subdivision by subdivision decision. Some people need help in closing costs. Some people need rate bought down for different reasons. And as I mentioned earlier, we had an 86% capture rate in the quarter. So I think that shows that a majority of the buyers like to use the mortgage company for the lower interest rates.
Alex Barron: Got it. Well, keep up the good work. Thanks, guys.
Robert Schottenstein: Thank you.
Phillip Creek: Thanks, Alex.
Operator: Thank you. We have one further question in the queue. [Operator Instructions] And our next question comes from the line of Jay McCanless at Webush. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Jay McCanless: Good morning, guys. I think Derek, you may have just answered my first question, which what percentage of either closings or orders in the third quarter where people who use some type of financing incentives?
Derek Klutch: Yes. We don’t necessarily track that, but just generally, it feels like the vast majority are using the below market interest rate.
Phillip Creek: It’s got to be in the high 80s.
Derek Klutch: Yes.
Jay McCanless: Okay. And then a couple of different questions on price. The first one, what percentage of communities were you able to raise or hold price this quarter? And how has that been faring in October?
Phillip Creek: And Jay, that’s a really hard answer. Every subdivision is a little different. The communities that opened during the quarter, we feel very good. They performed a little better than our expectations. Now, we track very careful what the margins are overall, because that’s the ultimate test and our margins have really continued to be pretty strong. But, as Bob said, I mean, demand’s okay. It’s definitely been impacted a little bit recently with rates getting up at that 8% range. We feel pretty good about our pricing and our margins, but there may very well be some pressure the next couple of quarters.
Robert Schottenstein: Jay, knowing what we know at this moment, likelihood that we’re going to have any kind of pricing power over the next number of weeks, I don’t see it. I mean, right now, demand’s a little choppy. I think it’s going to be sit tight. Let’s see how things are for a while. Plus, we’re entering into a normally, as we get closer to I can’t believe it’s almost here, but Thanksgiving, things start to slow down anyway. So, I think right now there’s a little — I don’t see much pricing leverage right now, in other words, our ability to raise prices.
