Big time home builder Lennar, a Tampa Bay area mainstay, lost $89-million in its third quarter that ended Aug. 31. Sales were off by about half.

But all failure is relative. Lennar lost $513.9-million in the third quarter of 2007. Last year's disastrous performance was partly tied to the company's selling off or breaking contracts on land it no longer needed.

Locally, Lennar purged itself of 8,300 lots less than a year ago. The fire sale buyer was Tampa's Metro Development Group.

Lennar president Stuart Miller reported that the company's East division, which Florida occupies along with Virginia, Maryland and New Jersey, outperformed the rest of its divisions last summer.

But Miller emphasized that "the housing market continues to search for a bottom" and bemoaned lack of government action to stabilize home prices.

(He must have missed the proposal for taxpayers to assume $1-trillion in bad mortgages based on the two recent housing rescue plans. So much for corporate gratitude. )

*