In June alone, Beazer had orders for 887 homes versus 723 a year ago, the company says in a prepared statement. The bulk of the new business is coming from the Southeast and the Southwest.

In the Southeast, 331 new orders arrived compared to 236 last year. In the Southwest, the company has 356 orders versus 320 a year ago. New June orders in the Mid-Atlantic region totaled 113 compared to 81 in 2000. In the central part of the country, Beazer has 87 orders, up from 86 in June 2000.

For its entire third quarter, the Southwest produced the most orders, 1,204 compared to 939 in the same period last year. The Southeast came in with 1,006 orders versus 705 previously. Mid-Atlantic orders totaled 375 versus 305 last year. The Central region brought in 288 orders, up from 241 in the company's third fiscal quarter of 2000.