Toll Brothers 4Q revenues decline 41 percent

The Horsham, Pa.-based company's preliminary results for its fiscal fourth quarter reflected worsening fortunes as the financial crisis took hold: Cancelations jumped 30 percent, while demand and traffic from prospective buyers fell last month to a record low, the company said.

Chief Executive Robert Toll said the government needs to step in to help people buy homes.

"As a result of the recent economic meltdown, we believe the government's attention should be focused on shoring up the housing market, which is the root of the current financial crisis," Toll said during a conference call with Wall Street analysts. "If home prices continue to go down, foreclosures and short sales will surely continue to go up."

That call was echoed by other major homebuilders Tuesday.

Stuart Miller, president and chief executive of Lennar Corp., said the housing market remains hobbled by rising foreclosures and tightened lending standards, which have left people who would like to buy a home hard-pressed to scrape together down payments.

"At the end of the day, my thesis continues to be that the way we find ourselves on the other side of this is through some form of government intervention," said Miller, speaking at the UBS Building & Building Products Sixth Annual CEO Conference.

The government did take some indirect action on Tuesday to help stem the foreclosure crisis.

In Washington, the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced a plan to help troubled homeowners by speeding up the process for renegotiating hundreds of thousands of delinquent loans held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The plan could have tremendous importance because Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac own or guarantee nearly 31 million U.S. mortgages, or nearly six of every 10 outstanding. Still, government officials did not have an estimate of how many people would qualify for the new program, which goes into effect Dec. 15.