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Note 7 - Mortgage Loans Held for Sale
 12 Months Ended
Oct. 31, 2013
Receivables [Abstract]  
Loans, Notes, Trade and Other Receivables Disclosure [Text Block]

7. Mortgage Loans Held for Sale


Our mortgage banking subsidiary originates mortgage loans, primarily from the sale of our homes. Such mortgage loans are sold in the secondary mortgage market within a short period of time of origination. Mortgage loans held for sale consist primarily of single-family residential loans collateralized by the underlying property. We have elected the fair value option to record loans held for sale and therefore these loans are recorded at fair value with the changes in the value recognized in the Statements of Operations in “Revenues: Financial services.” We currently use forward sales of mortgage-backed securities, interest rate commitments from borrowers and mandatory and/or best efforts forward commitments to sell loans to investors to protect us from interest rate fluctuations. These short-term instruments, which do not require any payments to be made to the counterparty or investor in connection with the execution of the commitments, are recorded at fair value. Gains and losses on changes in the fair value are recognized in the Statements of Operations in “Revenues: Financial services.”


At October 31, 2013 and 2012, respectively, $94.1 million and $104.6 million of mortgages held for sale were pledged against our mortgage warehouse lines of credit (see Note 8). We may incur losses with respect to mortgages that were previously sold that are delinquent and which had underwriting defects, but only to the extent the losses are not covered by mortgage insurance or resale value of the home. The reserves for these estimated losses are included in the "Financial services – Accounts payable and other liabilities" balance on the Consolidated Balance Sheet. We received 58 and 66 repurchase or make-whole inquiries during the year ended October 31, 2013 and 2012, respectively.


The activity in our loan origination reserves in fiscal 2013 and 2012 was as follows:


   

Year Ended

October 31,

 

(In thousands)

 

2013

   

2012

 
                 

Loan origination reserves, beginning of period

    $9,334       $5,063  

Provisions for losses during the period

    3,138       4,060  

Adjustments to pre-existing provisions for losses from changes in estimates

    (786 )     1,802  

Payments/settlements

    (650 )     (1,591

)

Loan origination reserves, end of period

    $11,036       $9,334