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Lennar CEO's 2010 compensation rose 31 percent

MIAMI – Lennar Corp. says President and CEO Stuart Miller received compensation valued at about $9.6 million in fiscal 2010, a 31 percent increase from the prior year, according to an Associated Press calculation from the company's proxy statement.

The Florida homebuilder kept Miller's base salary at $1 million, according to the proxy filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. He received a performance-based cash bonus of $1 million, compared with no bonus the year before.

Miller also received restricted stock awards valued at $7.6 million on the day they were granted, up 20 percent from $6.34 million the year before.

Additionally, Miller received $68,230 in all other compensation, which included $60,000 in dividends, $7,350 in 401(k) retirement fund contributions and $880 in life and disability insurance benefits.

Miller received a total of $7.4 million in all compensation in 2009, and $1.06 million in 2008 as the national housing market foundered.

The AP's formula for calculating executive compensation is designed to isolate the value that the company's board placed on the executive's total compensation package during the last fiscal year. It includes salary, bonus, performance-related bonuses, perks, above-market returns on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock options and awards granted during the year.

The calculations don't include changes in the present value of pension benefits, making the AP total different in most cases than the total reported by companies to the SEC.

Lennar builds homes and extends mortgages to homeowners. Its financial services division includes mortgage financing, title insurance, and closing services. At the end of its last fiscal year, in November, Lennar owned 82,703 home sites around the country. The company also had option contracts on an additional 21,173 home sites.

Lennar owns homes in states that were among the hardest hit by the U.S. housing crisis, including Florida, Nevada and California. The company's stock price plummeted as national real estate prices started to sag in 2007, falling from a high above $50 a share that year to less than $7 in 2009.

The housing market recovery, though uneven, has returned some of Lennar's value, with the stock trading over $20 a share.

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Information from: AP.