KB Home (KBH:NYSE)

A Central Florida homeowner forced into foreclosure filed a class-action lawsuit last week against KB Home Countrywide Financial and LandSafe Appraisal Services, claiming the three conspired to rig housing prices in Florida, South Carolina and North Carolina, costing home purchasers millions of dollars, and fueling the collapse of the region's housing market. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Orlando, Fla. on Friday, October 30, claims the three companies employed a well-planned scheme to control the typically independent appraisal process, jacking up home values, which, in turn, were used to determine the value of other homes sold by KB, affecting thousands of homeowners. This is the third lawsuit Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro's (HBSS) filed against KB Home, Countrywide and LandSafe alleging a widespread and complicated inflation scheme. The other lawsuits represent homeowners in California, Arizona and Nevada.

KB Home has introduced a video that takes the viewer inside The Open Series(TM), KB Home's new line of affordable, flexible and energy efficient Built to Order(TM) homes. KB Home developed The Open Series following comprehensive research of homebuyers across the country about what they wanted most in their new homes. KB Home's Built to Order experience, coupled with the new designs from The Open Series, provides all this and more.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating homebuilder KB Home for possible accounting and disclosure violations. In its quarterly filing with the SEC on October 10, 2009, KB Home said it is cooperating with the investigation and cannot predict its outcome or time frame. KB Home added it doesn't believe any liabilities or costs that might stem from the investigation will have a material effect on its financial position or results of operations.