Exhibit 99.1

WILLIAM LYON HOMES REPORTS FIRST QUARTER 2016 RESULTS

35% INCREASE IN NET INCOME AVAILABLE TO COMMON STOCKHOLDERS; 38% INCREASE IN HOMEBUILDING REVENUE; AND 41% INCREASE IN DOLLAR VALUE OF HOMES IN BACKLOG

NEWPORT BEACH, CA— May 9, 2016 — William Lyon Homes (NYSE: WLH), a leading homebuilder in the Western U.S., announced results for its 2016 first quarter ended March 31, 2016.

2016 First Quarter Highlights (Comparison to 2015 First Quarter)

“We are very pleased to have started the year with continued positive operating momentum,” said Matthew R. Zaist, President and Chief Executive Officer. “Home sales revenue increased by 38% to $261.3 million and deliveries increased by 40% to 543 units, resulting in a 35% increase in net income available to common stockholders of $9.0 million, or $0.24 per diluted share. Our ongoing focus on our strategic initiatives resulted in continued year-over-year improvement in virtually all of our key operating and financial metrics.”

Mr. Zaist continued, “We delivered another quarter of year-over-year improvement in net new home orders, which increased by 17% to 689, and the number and dollar value of our backlog, which grew to 885 homes and $471.7 million, up 31% and 41%, respectively. We are experiencing an orderly progression of new home sales and absorption rates throughout the spring selling season, as orders picked up momentum on a month-over-month basis throughout the quarter. This momentum has continued into the second quarter of 2016, where April’s absorption pace was the strongest of the year at 4.3 net sales per community, resulting in 291 net new home orders for the month. We continue to focus on new community openings and currently expect to open approximately 17 new home communities during the second quarter, with the bulk of these openings occurring in May and June, and expect to end the second quarter of 2016 selling out of approximately 80 new home communities.”

Operating Results

Home sales revenue for the first quarter of 2016 was $261.3 million, as compared to $189.7 million in the year-ago period, an increase of 38%. Our performance was driven by a 40% increase in the number of deliveries to 543 homes, compared to 388 homes delivered in the first quarter of 2015. Average sales price of homes delivered was $481,200 in the quarter, compared to $489,000 in the year-ago period. The slight decline in ASP primarily reflects changes in geographic and product mix contributing to closings during the quarter.

The dollar value of orders for the first quarter of 2016 was $334.5 million, an increase of 25%, from $268.2 million in the year-ago period. Net new home orders for the quarter were 689, up 17% from 588 in the first quarter of 2015. The overall increase in net new home orders was primarily driven by an increase in community count to 69 average sales locations, from 54 in the year-ago period, offset by a modest decline in absorption from 3.6 sales per month in the year-ago period to 3.3 sales per month in the current period. For the quarter, we saw monthly absorption rates range from a low of 2.8 sales per community in January to a high of 3.8 sales per community in March.

The dollar value of homes in backlog was $471.7 million as of March 31, 2016, an increase of 41% compared to $335.1 million as of March 31, 2015. The increase was driven by both a 31% increase in units in backlog to 885 from 678 and an 8% increase in ASP in backlog to $533,000 from $494,200 in the year-ago period.

Adjusted homebuilding gross margin percentage was 24.7% during the first quarter of 2016. Homebuilding gross margins for the first quarter of 2016 were 17.7%.

Sales and marketing expense during the first quarter of 2016 was 5.7% of homebuilding revenue, compared to 6.4% in the year-ago quarter, driven primarily by higher homebuilding revenue and leverage on our advertising and marketing costs, compared to the prior year period. General and administrative expenses decreased to 6.8% of homebuilding revenue, compared to 7.4% in the year-ago quarter, as we benefitted from a lower relative cost structure due to positive operating leverage.

Balance Sheet Update

At quarter end, cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash totaled $36.3 million, real estate inventories totaled $1.8 billion, total assets were $2.0 billion and total equity was $714 million. Net debt to net book capitalization was 60.2%, and total debt to total book capitalization was 61.0% at March 31, 2016, compared to 61.1% and 62.2%, respectively, as of December 31, 2015.

Conference Call

The Company will host a conference call to discuss these results today, Monday, May 9, 2016 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time. The call will be available via both the telephone at (855) 851-4524 or (720) 634-2900, passcode #92396245, or through the Company’s website at www.lyonhomes.com in the Investor Relations section of the site. A replay of the call will be available through May 16, 2016 by dialing (855) 859-2056 or (404) 537-3406, passcode #92396245. A webcast replay of the call will also be available on the Company’s website approximately two hours after the broadcast.

About William Lyon Homes

William Lyon Homes is one of the largest Western U.S. regional homebuilders. Headquartered in Newport Beach, California, the Company is primarily engaged in the design, construction, marketing and sale of single-family detached and attached homes in California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Washington and Oregon. Its core markets include Orange County, Los Angeles, the Inland Empire, the San Francisco Bay Area, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Denver, Seattle and Portland. The Company has a distinguished legacy of more than 60 years of homebuilding operations, over which time it has sold in excess of 96,000 homes. The Company markets and sells its homes under the William Lyon Homes brand in all of its markets except for Colorado, where the Company operates under the Village Homes brand, and Washington and Oregon, where the Company operates under the Polygon Northwest brand.

Certain statements contained in this release and the accompanying comments during our conference call that are not historical information may constitute “forward-looking statements” as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, forward-looking statements related to: community count growth, market and industry trends, the continued housing market recovery, operating results for the second quarter of 2016 and full year 2016, average sale price of homes to be closed in various periods, SG&A percentage, gross margins, future cash needs and liquidity, leverage ratios and reduction strategies, land acquisition spending and backlog conversion rates. The forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and actual results may differ materially from those projected or implied. The Company makes no commitment, and disclaims any duty, to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect future events or changes in these expectations. Further, certain forward-looking statements are based on assumptions of future events which may not prove to be accurate. Factors that may impact such forward-looking statements include, among others: the availability of labor and homebuilding materials and increased construction cycle times; adverse weather conditions, including but not limited to the continued drought in California and the Southwest; our financial leverage and level of indebtedness and any inability to comply with financial and other covenants under our debt instruments; continued volatility and worsening in general economic conditions either internationally, nationally or in regions in which we operate; conditions in our newly entered markets and newly acquired operations; worsening in markets for residential housing; the impact of construction defect, product liability and home warranty claims, including the adequacy of self-insurance accruals, and the applicability and sufficiency of our insurance coverage; decline in real estate values resulting in impairment of our real estate assets; volatility in the banking industry and credit markets; uncertainties in the capital and securities markets; terrorism or other hostilities involving the United States; building moratorium or “slow-growth” or “no-growth” initiatives that could be implemented in states in which we operate; changes in mortgage and other interest rates; conditions in the capital, credit and financial markets, including mortgage lending standards and the availability of mortgage financing; changes in generally accepted accounting principles or interpretations of those principles; changes in prices of homebuilding materials; competition for home sales from other sellers of new and resale homes; cancellations and our ability to realize our backlog; the occurrence of events such as landslides, soil subsidence and earthquakes that are uninsurable, not

economically insurable or not subject to effective indemnification agreements; changes in governmental laws and regulations; whether we are able to pay off or refinance the outstanding balances of our debt obligations at their maturity; limitations on our ability to utilize our tax attributes; whether an ownership change occurred that could, under certain circumstances, have resulted in the limitation of our ability to offset prior years’ taxable income with net operating losses; the timing of receipt of regulatory approvals and the opening of projects; the availability and cost of land for future development; our ability to integrate successfully the Polygon Northwest operation with our existing operations; and additional factors discussed under the sections captioned “Risk Factors” included in our annual and quarterly reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The foregoing list is not exhaustive. New risk factors may emerge from time to time and it is not possible for management to predict all such risk factors or to assess the impact of such risk factors on our business.

Investor/Media Contacts:

Larry Clark

Financial Profiles, Inc.

(310) 622-8223

WLH@finprofiles.com

WILLIAM LYON HOMES

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS

(in thousands except number of shares and per share data)

(unaudited)

WILLIAM LYON HOMES

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

(in thousands, except number of shares and par value per share)

WILLIAM LYON HOMES

SELECTED FINANCIAL AND OPERATING INFORMATION

(unaudited)

WILLIAM LYON HOMES

SELECTED FINANCIAL AND OPERATING INFORMATION

(unaudited)

WILLIAM LYON HOMES

SUPPLEMENTAL FINANCIAL INFORMATION

(unaudited)

Balance Sheet Data

WILLIAM LYON HOMES

SUPPLEMENTAL FINANCIAL INFORMATION

(unaudited)