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Note 9 - Mortgage Loans Held for Sale
 9 Months Ended
Jul. 31, 2015
Receivables [Abstract]  
Loans, Notes, Trade and Other Receivables Disclosure [Text Block]

9.

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 Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations in “Revenues: Financial services.” We currently use forward sales of mortgage-backed securities (“MBS”), interest rate commitments from borrowers and mandatory and/or best efforts forward commitments to sell loans to third-party purchasers to protect us from interest rate fluctuations. These short-term instruments, which do not require any payments to be made to the counterparty or purchaser 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 Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations in “Revenues: Financial services.”


At July 31, 2015 and October 31, 2014, $96.1 million and $78.6 million, respectively, of mortgages held for sale were pledged against our mortgage warehouse lines of credit (see Note 10). 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 the resale value of the home. The reserves for these estimated losses are included in the “Financial services – Accounts payable and other liabilities” balances on the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets. As of July 31, 2015 and 2014, we had reserves specifically for 131 and 200 identified mortgage loans, respectively, as well as reserves for an estimate for future losses on mortgages sold but not yet identified to us.


The activity in our loan origination reserves during the three and nine months ended July 31, 2015 and 2014 was as follows:


   

Three Months Ended

July 31,

    

Nine Months Ended

July 31,

  

(In thousands)

  

2015

    

2014

    

2015

    

2014

  
                                 

Loan origination reserves, beginning of period

     $7,942       $11,057       $7,352       $11,036  

Provisions for losses during the period

     39       1,899       168       2,766  

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

     (30 )     (1,682 )     431       (2,304 )

Payments/settlements

     -       -       -       (224 )

Loan origination reserves, end of period

     $7,951       $11,274       $7,951       $11,274