LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
KB Home (NYSE: KBH), one of the nation's largest and most recognized
homebuilders, today reported preliminary quarter-to-date net order and
community count information for its first fiscal quarter of 2015. Net
orders for new homes were 1,499 quarter-to-date through February 6,
2015, representing an increase of 25%, compared to net orders of 1,201
through February 7 in the first quarter of last year. The current year
quarter-to-date net order value rose 26% to $519.2 million, up from
$413.7 million in the year earlier quarter-to-date period. The Company
has opened 19 new communities quarter-to-date through February 6, 2015.
At the start of the quarter, the Company had 227 communities open for
sales, up 19% from 191 communities at the same time a year ago.
"We have achieved significant year-over-year increases in our net orders
and net order value driven primarily by the successful execution of our
community count growth strategy," said Jeffrey Mezger, president and
chief executive officer of KB Home. "Based on our expanding community
count and the strength of our recent net order results, we are
optimistic about the spring selling season. We believe the momentum of
these favorable trends, in combination with our solid backlog, support a
positive revenue outlook for the remainder of the year, particularly in
the third and fourth quarters."
About KB Home
KB Home is one of the largest and most recognized homebuilding companies
in the United States. Since its founding in 1957, the company has built
more than half a million quality homes. KB Home is distinguished by its
unique homebuilding approach to provide homebuyers optimal value and
choice, enabling each buyer to customize their new home from lot
location to floor plan and elevation to structural options and design
features. KB Home is a leader in utilizing state-of-the-art sustainable
building practices. All KB homes are built to be highly energy
efficient, helping to lower monthly utility costs, which the company
demonstrates with its proprietary KB Home Energy Performance Guide®
(EPG®). KB Home has been named an ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year
Sustained Excellence Award winner for four straight years and a
WaterSense® Partner of the Year for four consecutive years. A FORTUNE
1,000 company, Los Angeles-based KB Home was the first homebuilder
listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and trades under the ticker
symbol "KBH." For more information about KB Home's new home communities,
call 888-KB-HOMES or visit www.kbhome.com.
Forward-Looking and Cautionary Statements
Certain matters discussed in this press release, including any
statements that are predictive in nature or concern future market and
economic conditions, business and prospects, our future financial and
operational performance, or our future actions and their expected
results are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking
statements are based on current expectations and projections about
future events and are subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions
about our operations, economic and market factors, and the homebuilding
industry, among other things. These statements are not guarantees of
future performance, and we have no specific policy or intention to
update these statements. Actual events and results may differ materially
from those expressed or forecasted in forward-looking statements due to
a number of factors. The most important risk factors that could cause
our actual performance and future events and actions to differ
materially from such forward-looking statements include, but are not
limited to the following: general economic, employment and business
conditions; population growth, household formations and demographic
trends; adverse market conditions, including an increased supply of
unsold homes, declining home prices and greater foreclosure and short
sale activity, among other things, that could negatively affect our
consolidated financial statements, including due to additional
impairment or land option contract abandonment charges, lower revenues
and operating and other losses; conditions in the capital, credit and
financial markets (including residential mortgage lending standards, the
availability of residential mortgage financing and mortgage foreclosure
rates); material prices and availability; subcontracted trade labor
costs and availability; changes in interest rates; inflation; our debt
level, including our ratio of debt to capital, and our ability to adjust
our debt level, maturity schedule and structure and to access the
equity, credit, capital or other financial markets or other external
financing sources, including raising capital through the public or
private issuance of common stock, debt or other securities, and/or
project financing, on favorable terms; our compliance with the terms and
covenants of our revolving credit facility; weak or declining consumer
confidence, either generally or specifically with respect to purchasing
homes; competition for home sales from other sellers of new and resale
homes, including lenders and other sellers of homes obtained through
foreclosures or short sales; weather conditions, significant natural
disasters and other environmental factors; government actions, policies,
programs and regulations directed at or affecting the housing market
(including the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer
Protection Act, tax credits, tax incentives and/or subsidies for home
purchases, tax deductions for residential mortgage interest payments and
property taxes, tax exemptions for profits on home sales, programs
intended to modify existing mortgage loans and to prevent mortgage
foreclosures and the standards, fees and size limits applicable to the
purchase or insuring of mortgage loans by government-sponsored
enterprises and government agencies), the homebuilding industry, or
construction activities; decisions regarding federal fiscal and monetary
policies, including those relating to taxation, government spending,
interest rates and economic stimulus measures; the availability and cost
of land in desirable areas; our warranty claims experience with respect
to homes previously delivered and actual warranty costs incurred,
including our warranty claims and costs experience at certain of our
communities in Florida; legal or regulatory proceedings or claims; our
ability to use/realize the net deferred tax assets we have generated;
our ability to successfully implement our current and planned strategies
and initiatives with respect to product, geographic and market
positioning (including our efforts to expand our inventory base/pipeline
with desirable land positions or interests at reasonable cost and to
expand our community count, open additional new home communities for
sales, sell higher-priced homes and more design options, increase the
size and value of our backlog, and our operational and investment
concentration in markets in California), revenue growth, asset
optimization (including by effectively balancing home sales prices and
sales pace in our new home communities), asset activation and/or
monetization, local field management and talent investment, containing
and leveraging overhead costs, gaining share in our served markets and
increasing our housing gross profit margins; consumer traffic to our new
home communities and consumer interest in our product designs and
offerings, particularly from higher-income consumers; cancellations and
our ability to realize our backlog by converting net orders to home
deliveries; our home sales and delivery performance, particularly in key
markets in California; our ability to generate cash from our operations,
enhance our asset efficiency, increase our operating income margin
and/or improve our return on invested capital; the manner in which our
homebuyers are offered and whether they are able to obtain residential
mortgage loans and mortgage banking services, including from Home
Community Mortgage, our mortgage banking joint venture with Nationstar
Mortgage LLC; the performance of Home Community Mortgage; information
technology failures and data security breaches; and other events outside
of our control. See our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year
ended November 30, 2014 and our other filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission for a further discussion of these and other risks
and uncertainties applicable to our business.
KB Home
Media Contact
Susan Martin, 310-231-4142
smartin@kbhome.com
or
Investor
Relations Contact
Katoiya Marshall, 310-893-7446
kmarshall@kbhome.com
Source: KB Home
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