Kaufman & Broad Home Orders Fall 0.5%

Kaufman & Broad Home Corp., the largest U.S. home builder, said its U.S. home orders fell 0.5% in October from a year earlier, the first such decline in nearly two years. The Los Angeles-based company also said it will buy back as many as 4 million shares on the open market or in privately negotiated transactions. The company repurchased all of the 2.5 million shares it authorized in a previous buyback. Kaufman & Broad shares rose 50 cents to close at $21.69 on the New York Stock Exchange. The home builder said it had U.S. orders for 1,239 homes in October, down from 1,245. The last time the company reported a decline was December 1997, when U.S. orders fell 1.2%. The company said its orders overseas fell 25%. Kaufman & Broad’s decline mirrors an overall dip in the new-home market.