EXHIBIT 99.1

RISK FACTORS

         We want you to be aware that the following important factors could adversely impact our homebuilding and mortgage lending operations. These factors could cause our actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking and other statements that we make in registration statements, periodic reports and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and that we make from time to time in our news releases, annual reports and other written communications, as well as oral forward-looking and other statements made from time to time by our representatives.

Our business is cyclical and is significantly impacted by changes in general and local economic conditions.

Our business is substantially affected by changes in national and general economic factors outside of our control, such as:

• short and long term interest rates;

• the availability of financing for homebuyers;

• consumer confidence;

• federal mortgage financing programs; and

• federal income tax provisions.

The cyclicality of our business is also highly sensitive to changes in economic conditions that can occur on a local or regional basis, such as changes in:

• housing demand;

• population growth;

• employment levels and job growth; and

• property taxes.

Weather conditions and natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, droughts, fires and other casualties can harm our homebuilding business on a local or regional basis.

Fluctuating lumber prices and shortages, as well as shortages or price fluctuations in other important building materials, can have an adverse effect on our homebuilding business.

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Similarly, labor shortages or unrest among key trades, such as carpenters, roofers, electricians and plumbers, can delay the delivery of our homes and increase our costs.

The difficulties described above can cause demand and prices for our homes to diminish or cause us to take longer and incur more costs to build our homes. We may not be able to recover these increased costs by raising prices because the price of each home is usually set several months before the home is delivered, as our customers typically sign their home purchase contracts before construction has even begun on their homes. In addition, some of the difficulties described above could cause some homebuyers to cancel their home purchase contracts altogether.

Our success depends on the availability of improved lots and undeveloped land that meet our land investment criteria.

The availability of finished and partially developed lots and undeveloped land for purchase that meet our internal criteria depends on a number of factors outside our control, including land availability in general, competition with other homebuilders and land buyers for desirable property, inflation in land prices and zoning, allowable housing density and other regulatory requirements. Should suitable lots or land become less available, the number of homes we may be able to build and sell could be reduced, and the cost of land could be increased, perhaps substantially, which could adversely impact our results of operations.

Home prices and sales activity in particular regions of the Western, Southwestern and Central United States impact our results of operations because our business is concentrated in these markets.

Home prices and sales activity in some of our key markets have declined from time to time for market-specific reasons, including adverse weather or economic contraction due to, among other things, the failure or decline of key industries and employers. If home prices or sales activity decline in one or more of the key markets in which we operate, our costs may not decline at all or at the same rate and, as a result, our overall results of operations may be adversely impacted.

Interest rate increases or changes in federal lending programs could lower demand for our homes and adversely impact our mortgage lending operations.

Nearly all of our customers finance the purchase of their homes, and a significant majority of these customers arrange their financing through our mortgage lending subsidiary. Increases in interest rates or decreases in availability of mortgage financing would increase monthly mortgage costs for our potential homebuyers and could therefore reduce demand for our homes and mortgages. Increased interest rates can also hinder our ability to realize our backlog because our sales contracts provide our customers with a financing contingency. Financing contingencies allow customers to cancel their home purchase contracts in the event they cannot arrange for financing at interest rates that were prevailing when they signed their contracts.

Because the availability of FNMA, FHLMC, FHA and VA mortgage financing is an important factor in marketing many of our homes, any limitations or restrictions on the availability of those

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types of financing could reduce our home sales and the lending volume at our mortgage subsidiary.

We are subject to substantial legal and regulatory requirements regarding the development of land, the homebuilding process and protection of the environment, which can cause us to suffer delays and incur costs associated with compliance and prohibit or restrict homebuilding activity in some regions or areas.

Our homebuilding business is heavily regulated and subject to increasing local, state and federal statutes, ordinances, rules and regulations concerning zoning, resource protection, building design, construction and similar matters. These regulations often provide broad discretion to governmental authorities that regulate these matters, which can result in unanticipated delays or increases in the cost of a specified project or a number of projects in particular markets. We may also experience periodic delays in homebuilding projects due to building moratoria in any of the areas in which we operate.

We are also subject to a variety of local, state and federal statutes, ordinances, rules and regulations concerning the environment. These laws and regulations may cause delays in construction and delivering new homes, may cause us to incur substantial compliance and other costs, and can prohibit or severely restrict homebuilding activity in certain environmentally sensitive regions or areas. In addition, environmental laws may impose liability for the costs of removal or remediation of hazardous or toxic substances whether or not the developer or owner of the property knew of, or was responsible for, the presence of those substances. The presence of these substances on our properties may prevent us from selling our homes and we may also be liable, under applicable laws and regulations or lawsuits brought by private parties, for hazardous or toxic substances on properties and lots that we have sold in the past.

Further, a significant portion of our business is conducted in California, which is one of the most highly regulated and litigious states in the country. Therefore, our potential exposure to losses and expenses due to new laws, regulations or litigation may be greater than other homebuilders with a less significant California presence.

Because of our French business, we are also subject to regulations and restrictions imposed by the government of France concerning investments by non-French companies, such as us, in businesses in France, as well as to French laws and regulations similar to those discussed above.

Our mortgage operations are heavily regulated and subject to the rules and regulations promulgated by a number of governmental and quasi-governmental agencies. We are also subject to federal and state statutes and regulations which, among other things, prohibit discrimination, establish underwriting guidelines which include obtaining inspections and appraisals, require credit reports on prospective borrowers and fix maximum loan amounts. A finding that we had materially violated any of the foregoing laws could have an adverse effect on our results of mortgage operations.

We are subject to a Consent Order that we entered into with the Federal Trade Commission in 1979. Pursuant to the Consent Order, we provide explicit warranties on the quality of our

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homes, follow certain guidelines in advertising and provide certain disclosures to prospective purchasers of our homes. A finding that we have significantly violated the Consent Order could result in substantial liability and could limit our ability to sell homes in certain markets.

We build homes in highly competitive markets, which could hurt our future operating results.

We compete in each of our markets with a number of homebuilding companies for homebuyers, land, financing, raw materials and skilled management and labor resources. Our competitors include other large national homebuilders, as well as smaller regional and local builders that can have an advantage in local markets because of long-standing relationships they may have with local labor or land sellers. We also compete with other housing alternatives, such as existing homes and rental housing.

These competitive conditions can:

— make it difficult for us to acquire desirable land which meets our land buying criteria;

— cause us to offer or to increase our sales incentives or price discounts; and

— result in reduced sales.

Any of these competitive conditions can adversely impact our revenues, increase our costs and/or impede the growth of our local or regional homebuilding businesses.

Our mortgage lending operation competes with other mortgage lenders, including national, regional and local mortgage bankers, savings and loan associations and other financial institutions. Mortgage lenders with greater access to capital markets or those with less rigorous lending criteria can sometimes offer lower interest rates than we can, which can diminish our ability to compete and adversely impact the results of operations from our mortgage lending business.

Because of the seasonal nature of our business, our quarterly operating results fluctuate.

We have experienced seasonal fluctuations in quarterly operating results. We typically do not commence significant construction on a home before a sales contract has been signed with a homebuyer. A significant percentage of our sales contracts are made during the spring and summer months. Construction of our homes typically requires approximately three months and weather delays that often occur during late winter and early spring may extend this period. As a result of these combined factors, we historically have experienced uneven quarterly results, with lower revenues and operating income generally during the first and second quarters of our fiscal year.

Our leverage may place burdens on our ability to comply with the terms of our indebtedness, may restrict our ability to operate and may prevent us from fulfilling our obligations.

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The amount of our debt could have important consequences to you. For example, it could:

— limit our ability to obtain future financing for working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions, debt service requirements or other requirements;

— require us to dedicate a substantial portion of our cash flow from operations to the payment of our debt and reduce our ability to use our cash flow for other purposes;

— impact our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in our business;

— place us at a competitive disadvantage because we have more debt than some of our competitors; and

— make us more vulnerable in the event of a downturn in our business or in general economic conditions.

Our ability to meet our debt service and other obligations will depend upon our future performance. We are engaged in businesses that are substantially affected by changes in economic cycles. Our revenues and earnings vary with the level of general economic activity in the markets we serve. Our businesses could also be affected by financial, political, business and other factors, many of which are beyond our control. The factors that affect our ability to generate cash can also affect our ability to raise additional funds through the sale of debt and/or equity securities, the refinancing of debt or the sale of assets. Changes in prevailing interest rates may also affect our ability to meet our debt service obligations, because borrowings under our bank credit facilities bear interest at floating rates. A higher interest rate on our debt could adversely affect our operating results.

Our business may not generate sufficient cash flow from operations and borrowings may not be available to us under our bank credit facilities in an amount sufficient to enable us to pay our debt service obligations or to fund our other liquidity needs. We may need to refinance all or a portion of our debt on or before maturity, which we may not be able to do on favorable terms or at all.

Under the terms of our bank credit facilities, our debt service payment obligations are defined as Consolidated Interest Expense. As defined, Consolidated Interest Expense for the year ended November 30, 2000 and the nine-months ended August 31, 2001 were $109.6 million and $89.3 million, respectively. On a pro forma basis, after giving effect to the issuance on December 14, 2001 of our $200,000,000 8-5/8% Senior Subordinated Notes due 2008 and the redemption on December 31, 2001 of our $175,000,000 9-3/8% Senior Subordinated Notes due 2003, our debt service payment obligations for the year ended November 30, 2000 and the nine-months ended August 31, 2001 would have been $110.4 million and $90.0 million, respectively.

We may have difficulty in continuing to obtain the additional financing required to operate and develop our business.

Our homebuilding operations require significant amounts of cash and/or available credit. It is not possible to predict the future terms or availability of additional capital. Moreover, our outstanding domestic public debt, as well as our domestic credit facilities and the credit facilities of our French subsidiary, contain provisions that may restrict the amount and nature of debt we may incur in the future. Our bank credit facilities limit our ability to borrow additional funds by placing a maximum cap on our leverage ratio. Under the most restrictive of these provisions, as of August 31, 2001, we would have been permitted to incur up to $1,888.8 million of Total Consolidated Indebtedness, as defined in the bank credit facilities. This maximum amount exceeded our actual Total Consolidated Indebtedness at August 31, 2001 by $735.0 million. There can be no assurance that we can actually borrow up to this maximum amount at any time, as our ability to borrow additional funds, and to raise additional capital through other means, is also dependent on conditions in the capital markets and our credit-worthiness. If conditions in the capital markets change significantly, it could reduce our sales and may hinder our future growth and results of operations.

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Our future growth may be limited by contracting economies in the markets in which we currently operate, our inability to find appropriate acquisition candidates, or our consummation of acquisitions that may not be successfully integrated or may not achieve expected benefits.

Our future growth and results of operations could be adversely affected if the markets in which we currently operate do not continue to support the expansion of our existing business or if we are unable to identify suitable acquisition opportunities in new markets. Over the last several years, there has been some significant consolidation in the homebuilding industry, which has made it somewhat more difficult for us to identify appropriate acquisition candidates in new markets and has increased competition for acquisition candidates. If we do consummate acquisitions in the future, we may not be successful in integrating the operations of the acquired businesses, including their product lines, dispersed operations and distinct corporate cultures. Our inability to grow in existing markets or find appropriate acquisition opportunities in new markets, or our failure to successfully manage future acquisitions, would limit our ability to grow and would adversely impact our future operating results.

Because we build homes in France, some of our revenues and earnings are subject to foreign currency and economic risks.

A portion of our construction operations are located in France. As a result, our financial results are affected by fluctuations in the value of the U.S. dollar as compared to the Euro and changes in the French economy to the extent those changes affect the homebuilding market there. We do not currently use any currency hedging instruments or other strategies to manage currency risks related to fluctuations in the value of the U.S. dollar or the Euro.

International instability, and future terrorist acts against or similar adverse developments involving the United States or France, could have a material adverse effect on our operations.

The September 11, 2001 terrorist acts against the United States and the subsequent U.S. military response have resulted in generalized economic uncertainty. In the weeks immediately following the September 11th attacks, net orders for our homes fell sharply and cancellations increased, although they have subsequently returned to levels that compare favorably on a year-over-year basis. We do not expect the adverse developments immediately following September 11th to have a material effect on our overall future results of operations. Despite this apparent rebound, considerable instability continues and consumer confidence continues to diminish. These generalized conditions or future adverse developments in the war against terrorism, future terrorist acts against the U.S. or France or increased international instability in general, could result in a material long-term decrease in our net orders and an increase in cancellations, which could materially adversely affect our operating results or result in a decline in the market value of our securities.

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