If you were looking for good news out of the residential construction world, today is the day to go out and play golf. Quarterly results for some of the major homebuilders were released today and they were down right ugly. Take a look:

• Beazer: Net loss for the three months ended March 31 was $43.1 million, or $1.12 a share, compared with a net income of $104.4 million, or $2.35, a year earlier, the Atlanta-based company said today in a statement. Revenue slid 35 percent to $826.3 million.

  The company recorded $86.9 million in pretax expenses to walk away from land-option contracts and to write down the value of land.

• Meritage: reported a drop in profit in the first quarter and also said it was seeing signs of a rebound in demand. Scottsdale, Arizona-based Meritage, the 13th largest homebuilder, said its first quarter profit plunged 81 percent to $15.1 million, or 57 cents a share, from $79.7 million, or $2.86, a year ago.

  The company forecast earnings of $2 to $2.50 a share for 2007. Six analysts in a Bloomberg survey project earnings of $1.73 a share, excluding items, on average.

• Pulte: reported a first-quarter net loss of $85.7 million, or 33 cents a share, compared with a profit of $262.6 million, or $1.01, a year earlier. Revenue fell 37 percent to $1.87 billion, the Bloomfield Hills, Michigan-based company said yesterday in a statement.

• Ryland:  said yesterday after the close of regular trading its net loss in the three months ended March 31 was $24.4 million, or 58 cents a share. That compared with a profit of $90 million, or $1.86, a year earlier.

  First-quarter revenue fell 34 percent to $706.4 million, the Calabasas, California-based company said in a statement. New orders in the quarter plunged 26 percent to 2,989. The company had forecast earnings in January of $3.75 to $4.25 a share for 2007.

But there is some good news. In the corporate world, when the proverbial sh#t hits the fan, companies have learned to clear the decks. Remember that piece of land that Jim bought from his cousin that has a canyon running through it, write it off. And all of the other blunders that have been sitting on the balance sheet disappear fairly quickly.

What is nice is when the market turns around the companies have gotten rid of the weak parts of their business and are ready to be aggressive.

Information for this post came from Bloomberg.

Related posts:

1. Lennar Sees Improving Market As It Posts Wider Losses
2. Pulte Homes Says New Home Sales Will Increase When Foreclosures Slow Down
3. Lowe’s and Home Depot Struggle in Tough Real Estate Market
4. BlackRock Still Profitable Even With Poor Commercial Market
5. Pulte Homes and Centex To Merge in Billion Dollar Deal