In recent weeks, builders have come out with their earnings. For example, PulteGroup's earnings beat estimates and the company announced a new "value creation" plan: management will buy back up to $1.5 billion in stock over the next 18 months and reduce land investment. This is a bit of a surprise given that revenues increased 41%, and average selling prices increased 11%. As iServe's Brent Nyitray points out, "Pulte has been targeting the first time homebuyer pretty aggressively, and given the pent-up demand, they probably should be investing in the business instead of buying back stock." And D.R. Horton also announced its earnings which were in line with expectations. Revenues increased 9% and earnings increased 13%.