KB Home to quit building in some markets

Home builder KB Home said Friday that it would stop building in Chicago, the mid-Atlantic region and Albuquerque, N.M., after finishing houses under construction in those regions.

KB Home, based in Westwood, has five communities under development in Albuquerque, four in the Chicago area and five in the mid-Atlantic, which encompasses Virginia and Maryland, spokeswoman Lindsay Stephenson said. Homes under construction in those areas will be completed, she said.

“All three of those areas are smaller operations,” Stephenson said. “We don’t anticipate that we will be able to grow our business near term sufficiently or properly in those areas.”

The worst housing slump in a quarter century has deterred consumers from making purchases, left a glut of unsold homes on the market, and led banks to curtail credit to some buyers. KB Home had a loss of $929.4 million in fiscal 2007, compared with net income of $482.4 million a year earlier.

The three regions each have about 50 employees. The company will try to relocate them after KB Home’s exit, Stephenson said. It will probably take a “few years” before KB Home finishes construction and sales in those areas, and “many of the jobs will remain until the work is complete,” she said.

KB Home rose 11 cents to $22.16.