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Inventories
3 Months Ended
Feb. 28, 2014
Inventory Disclosure [Abstract]  
Inventories
Inventories
Inventories consisted of the following (in thousands):
 
 
February 28, 2014
 
November 30, 2013
Homes under construction
 
$
633,396

 
$
586,439

Land under development
 
1,363,340

 
1,066,916

Land held for future development
 
638,208

 
645,222

Total
 
$
2,634,944

 
$
2,298,577


Homes under construction is comprised of costs associated with homes in various stages of construction and includes direct construction and related land acquisition and land development costs. Land under development primarily consists of land acquisition and land development costs, which include capitalized interest and real estate taxes associated with land undergoing improvement activity. Land held for future development principally reflects land acquisition and land development costs related to land where development activity has been suspended or has not yet begun, but is expected to occur in the future. These assets held for future development are located in various submarkets where conditions do not presently support further investment or development, or are subject to a building permit moratorium or other regulatory restrictions, or are portions of larger land parcels that we plan to build out over several years and/or that have not yet been entitled. We may also suspend development activity if we believe it will result in greater returns and/or maximize the economic performance of a community by delaying improvements for a period of time to allow earlier phases of a long-term, multi-phase community or a neighboring community to generate sales momentum or for market conditions to improve. We resume development activity when we believe our investment in this inventory will be optimized or, in some instances, to accelerate sales pace and/or our return on investment, and we have activated assets previously held for future development in certain markets as part of our strategic growth initiatives. Interest and real estate taxes are not capitalized on land held for future development.
Our interest costs are as follows (in thousands):
 
 
Three Months Ended February 28,
 
 
2014
 
2013
Capitalized interest at beginning of period
 
$
216,681

 
$
217,684

Interest incurred
 
39,280

 
33,422

Interest expensed
 
(11,276
)
 
(15,240
)
Interest amortized to construction and land costs
 
(17,485
)
 
(18,705
)
Capitalized interest at end of period (a)
 
$
227,200

 
$
217,161


(a)
Inventory impairment charges are recognized against all inventory costs of a community, such as land acquisition, land development, cost of home construction and capitalized interest. Capitalized interest amounts presented in the table reflect the gross amount of capitalized interest as impairment charges recognized are not generally allocated to specific components of inventory.