Profile: M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. (MDC)

M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. (MDC) is a United States-based company. It operates in two business segments: homebuilding and financial services. The homebuilding operations consist of wholly owned subsidiary companies, which purchase finished lots for the construction and sale of single-family detached homes to homebuyers under the name Richmond American Homes. The homebuilding operations operates in four business segments: West (Arizona, California and Nevada); Mountain (Colorado and Utah); East (Maryland, Virginia and Delaware Valley), and other homebuilding (Florida and Illinois). The financial services and other segment consists of HomeAmerican Mortgage Corporation (HomeAmerican), which originates mortgage loans primarily for the homebuyers; American Home Insurance Agency, Inc. (American Home Insurance), which offers third-party insurance products to the homebuyers, and American Home Title and Escrow Company (American Home Title), which offers title agency services to the Company and homebuyers in Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Nevada and Virginia. The segment also includes Allegiant Insurance Company, Inc., A Risk Retention Group (Allegiant), which provides to its customers, primarily the homebuilding subsidiaries and certain subcontractors of these homebuilding subsidiaries, general liability coverage for construction work performed associated with closed homes, and StarAmerican Insurance Ltd. (StarAmerican), a wholly owned subsidiary of MDC.

Homebuilding Operations

The homebuilding subsidiaries sell and close homes in geographically diverse markets. In the homebuilding segments, the primary functions include land acquisition and development, home construction, purchasing, sales and marketing, and customer service. The Company builds single-family detached homes in a number of series, designed to provide range in the size and style of homes for the homebuyers. Within each series, MDC build different floor plans offering standard and optional features. At December 31, 2009, MDC had nine homebuilding operating divisions. At December 31, 2009, homes under contract but not delivered totaled 826 respectively.

Financial Services and Other Segment

HomeAmerican is a mortgage lender and the principal originator of mortgage loans for the homebuyers. It has a centralized loan processing center where it originates mortgage loans primarily for the homebuyers. HomeAmerican also brokers mortgage loans for origination by outside lending institutions for the homebuyers. HomeAmerican is authorized to originate Federal Housing Administration-insured (FHA), Veterans Administration-guaranteed (VA), Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) and other private investor mortgage loans. HomeAmerican also is an authorized loan servicer for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The Company’s insurance operations consist of three business divisions: Allegiant, StarAmerican and American Home Insurance. Allegiant and StarAmerican were formed to provide insurance coverage of homebuilding risks. StarAmerican is a single parent captive insurance company licensed by the Division of Insurance of the State of Hawaii. American Home Insurance is an insurance agency, which provides homebuyers with personal property and casualty insurance products in the same markets as the homebuilding subsidiaries. American Home Title provides title agency services to the Company and the home buyers in Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Nevada and Virginia.