Reuters is reporting, on Yahoo Finance, that due to a steeper-then-expected drop in the U.S. housing market Lennar Corp.’s quarterly profit was pushed down 39 percent and prompted the home builder on Tuesday to slash its fourth-quarter forecast. Responding to a deteriorating market, some large U.S. builders have pulled back on the number of homes they build to protect their gross margins. But Lennar has pursued a different course — trading margin for volume.

The larger publicly traded builders, which comprise about 23 percent to 25 percent of the new home market, are suffering along with the rest of the sector. According to the U.S.Commerce Department, home starts fell 19.8 percent in August compared with a year earlier to their lowest level in more than three years.

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