Toll Brothers has some numbers out. "Toll Brothers, the Horsham, Pa.-based luxury home builder, said the value of signed contracts declined 29% in the quarter ended April 30. Toll Brothers also cut its estimate of home deliveries for the year, as speculative buyers quit the market and ordinary demand slackens on concerns about the direction of house prices."

"Toll Brothers Inc. on Friday cut its forecast for the number of homes it expects to sell in fiscal 2006, as quarterly orders fell 32 percent. It was the third time since November that Toll slashed its forecast for the number of homes it expected to sell in the year."

"'I think the Street was looking for weakness, just not this weak,' said (analyst) John Tomlinson."

"The decline in orders reflects softening demand and a build up of homes on the market, especially by speculators who are unloading their investments as their anticipated profit evaporates."

"Orders fell sharply in Toll's biggest market, the Mid-Atlantic states of Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia, where they were off 45 percent. 'Speculative buyers are no longer fueling demand,' Robert Toll, CEO said in a statement. 'Instead they're putting the homes they've recently acquired back on the market, or are canceling contracts in mid-construction.'"

"He added that the oversupply is being 'aggressively discounted by others.'"

"Would-be buyers also were spooked, as the cancellation rate for the quarter was 8.5 percent, above Toll's historic average of 7 percent, the company said."

"To help prop up the company's sagging stock price, Toll bought back 1.3 million shares during the quarter, for a total of 3.9 million, or 2.5 percent of its outstanding shares. Since July, shares of Toll Brothers have lost 47 percent of their value, as its high-end customers are considered more knowledgeable about the housing market and have more discretion not to trade-up from their existing homes."