Standard Pacific considers sale after sixth straight loss

Irvine home builder Standard Pacific Corp. raised the prospect of selling itself Monday as it reported its sixth straight quarterly loss. Its shares plunged 21%.

Standard Pacific Chief Executive Jeffrey V. Peterson told analysts in a conference call that falling house prices accounted for much of the company's losses and will continue to dog the builder for the rest of the year.

In a regulatory filing, the firm said a sale of the company was among six options it was considering, including a merger or sales of non-core assets.

The company said it lost $216.4 million, or $3.34 a share, in the first quarter. That compares with $40.8 million, or 63 cents, in year-earlier quarter. Revenue fell to $348.2 million from $651.1 million a year earlier.

The loss was more than double the $1.52-a-share average loss predicted in a survey of Bloomberg analysts.

Standard Pacific, in business for 42 years, builds homes in eight states: California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Florida, Colorado and the Carolinas.

The company's shares fell 80 cents to $2.97. The stock had traded at a 52-week high of $23.33 on May 22.

The company delivered 42% fewer new homes in Southern California in the three months ended March 31 than it did in the same period last year. In all of California, new-home deliveries for the quarter were down 30% from a year earlier.

The company's average home price for California was down 19% in the first quarter of 2008 from a year earlier. In Southern California, the average home price fell 10% for the quarter compared with a year earlier.

peter.hong@latimes.com