KB Home To Take Charges

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KB Home warned that it would report disappointing quarterly results because a slumping U.S. housing market has forced it to write down $343 million in property.


The Los Angeles-based homebuilder home will record inventory impairments of $255 million for the quarter ended Nov. 30, the company said Tuesday in a regulatory filing. The charge lowers the book value of certain holdings and is considered an indication that certain properties can’t be sold for a profit.


KB Home shares fell 58 cents, or 1 percent, to $48.77 in midday trading. Market reaction was limited because the company had warned last month that impairment charges were likely.


“The homebuilding industry in the United States is experiencing an increasingly challenging operating environment, which includes an oversupply of inventory, a decline in new home orders and sales prices and an increase in sales incentives required to generate new home orders,” the company said in a Dec. 8 filing.


Homebuilders around the country are cutting inventory. Centex Corp., the nation’s third-largest homebuilder, also said Tuesday that it would post about $150 million of option deposit and walk-away costs in the fiscal third quarter, as well as $300 million of land valuation adjustments.

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