We expect William Lyon Homes Inc. (WLH) to continue to improve its operating efficiency and EBITDA generation through increased size and scale and better profitability. Although WLH's debt leverage remained high through the first half of 2017, we expect that it will decline below 5x by the end of 2017, with continued improvement in 2018. We are raising our corporate credit rating on WLH to 'B' from 'B-'. The outlook is stable. We are also raising our issue-level rating on the company's senior unsecured debt to 'B+' from 'B-' and revising our recovery rating on the debt to '2' from '3'. The stable outlook reflects our expectation that William Lyon Homes will lower its debt leverage below 5x by the
