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Note 2 - Business
12 Months Ended
Oct. 31, 2016
Notes to Financial Statements  
Nature of Operations [Text Block]
2.
Business
 
Our operations consist of homebuilding, financial services and corporate. Our homebuilding operations are made up of
six
reportable segments defined as Northeast, Mid Atlantic, Midwest, Southeast, Southwest and West. Homebuilding operations comprise the substantial part of our business, representing approximately
97
%
of consolidated revenues for the years ended
October 31, 2016,
and
2015
and approximately
98%
for the year ended
October 31, 2014.
We are a Delaware corporation, building and selling homes at
October 31, 2016
in
167
consolidated new home communities in Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington, D.C. and West Virginia. We offer a wide variety of homes that are designed to appeal to
first
time buyers,
first
and
second
time move up buyers, luxury buyers, active lifestyle buyers and empty nesters. Our financial services operations, which are a reportable segment, provide mortgage banking and title services to the homebuilding operations’ customers. We do not typically retain or service the mortgages that we originate but rather sell the mortgages and related servicing rights to investors. Corporate primarily includes the operations of our corporate office whose primary purpose is to provide executive services, accounting, information services, human resources, management reporting, training, cash management, internal audit, risk management, and administration of process redesign, quality, and safety.
 
During fiscal
2016,
we decided to exit the Minneapolis, MN and Raleigh, NC markets and in the
third
quarter of fiscal
2016,
we completed the sale of our portfolios in those markets. We have also decided to wind down our operations in the San Francisco Bay area in Northern California and in Tampa, FL by building and delivering homes to sell through our existing land position.
 
See Note
10
“Operating and Reporting Segments” for further disclosure of our reportable segments.