KB Homes Announces Fire Sale
Representatives from White Residential and KB Homes refused comment on Friday when asked if corners were cut in an effort to speed up construction.  Industry experts have speculated that the structure might be condemned due to shoddy workmanship. See news reports

A Triangle family's dream home literally turned into a nightmare 
Their brand new house left them with headaches and hospital bills. Deborah Moore tells Troubleshooter Diane Wilson, "We were dizzy, my head was hurting. My husband was dizzy." That's not the way you're supposed to feel right after moving into your brand new home. But Deborah headaches got even worse when she found out what was really wrong. She adds, "I'm like, what you mean a gas leak in a new home? I was stunned."... She wants KB to buy back the house. She says she just doesn't feel safe there.

SAHA takes no action on Mirasol settlement
The San Antonio Housing Authority's board of commissioners postponed a decision Tuesday on whether to accept a settlement offer from KB Home, which would have ended a year-old lawsuit over the agency's troubled Mirasol Homes development...SAHA has budgeted $4 million to repair 246 homes and expects to spend roughly $3.5 million on a buyback program that allows Mirasol homeowners to sell their houses to SAHA and retain their first-time homebuyer status...Homeowners and tenants still attend SAHA board meetings to complain about the quality of repairs in their houses.

 Mirasol Families call on KB
LULAC’s Henry Rodriguez and HOBB support Mirasol families exercising their civil rights...Therefore, the entire world needs to know what is happening here… It’s a mess. It’s much more cost effective to raze them, tear them down and build them right.  Stop trying to patch them up with caulking, said Rodriguez.  See You Tube video. 

Mirasol Homes' American dream still nightmare
In one of San Antonio's most troubled public housing developments, Raquel Martinez is watching her dream slowly fade away. For years, homeowners and tenants have endured life in houses that some say were built to last less than a decade. And there's a growing sense in the neighborhood that Mirasol is a problem that never will be solved. At the same time, residents' fervor for the fight is waning. What's clear is that the board, led by Ramiro Cavazos, is saying all the right things, at least for those who matter to the commissioners — Mirasol residents. His unabashed opinions of the workmanship by KB Home, the project's builder, resonate with them. "The problems probably are worse than even what's been described about the quality of the homes that were constructed," Cavazos said. "I was shocked at how poorly constructed the homes were."

Mirasol residents win temporary housing
"We need to be moved out of these houses, period," Guadalupe Lopez told the SAHA board. "And one of our ideas is to move into some of these other houses." The idea struck a chord with the commissioners, though whether it would pass muster with the agency's policies was initially unclear.  "I think it does sound very reasonable," Commissioner Rebecca Galvan said. "I don't know that I could tell you the particulars on how it would work."

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED
That LULAC and its  National Board call for an investigation by appropriate Federal Agencies having oversight or jurisdiction over the matters of; new home construction standards compliance, affordable housing, new home warranties, compliance with federal consumer protection laws, predatory lending, waste in government, and the welfare and human rights of all peoples particularly those of Latino heritage; and...

Homeowners say Why Lie KB?
Where is the dream and security of homeownership. We are about lies. We were told by KB Salespersons that KB was not allowed to sell more than 10% of the homes in our community to investors. We are about KB manipulating us and flat out lying to us.  Chisholm Crossing is about a subdivison of investors, foreclosures and a community with 30% rental houses within the first year.  See: Chisholm Crossing See website WhyLieKB.com

The Perils of One-Stop Shopping
Like many new-home buyers, lead plaintiff Debbie Bolden had availed herself of the builder's in-house services. KB Homes offered not only in-house real estate agents, but an affiliated mortgage company - in a 50-50 partnership with Countrywide Financial. Countrywide also owned the appraisal company...California builder Ryland Group agreed to refund 850 buyers about $250 each and pay a $161,000 fine after North Carolina's banking commissioner's office accused the builder/lender of using unlicensed loan officers and charging borrowers excessive fees... Altlanta's Beazer Homes, another large builder that began funding its own loans during the boom and has since closed its lending division, is also being investigated by the North Carolina banking commissioner's office for alleged violations of federal lending laws. In 2005 a HUD investigation led to KB Home shelling out a record $3.2 million settlement in response to allegations that the builder's mortgage wing pushed through loan applications that overstated borrowers' incomes.

Builder On Line: KB Home Reports $268 Million First-Quarter Loss
KB Home, the industry's fifth-largest builder, lost $268.2 million in the three months ended Feb. 29, compared to a $27.5 million gain in the comparable quarter last year. The builder's revenue from its home building operations fell 47.1 percent to $794.2 million in the quarter, when its deliveries declined by nearly 43 percent, to 2,928 units.

Build it right the first time
If you own a home in Texas, you should get to know Janet Ahmad... Ahmad has paid the price for being an outspoken critic. A recently concluded, six-year, Tarrant County trial found Janet innocent of making a false 911 call to report a bomb in an Arlington neighborhood built by KB Homes on a defunct bombing range...KB Homes was certainly not discreet about spending a great deal of time and effort convincing the Tarrant County District Attorney to bring the baseless felony charges against me in the first place. It’s now been over 7 years since KB Homes first vowed to inflict its powerful wrath and to maybe even put me behind bars. Make no mistake; KB was on a mission to silence its many critics. Before the Arlington charges, they sued me, the HOBB organization, and their own customers for $20 million, alleging that picketing constituted racketeering, of all things!...It’s the voice of the little guy. They are the ones that inspire me. Just look at the people at Mirasol Homes. It’s voices like theirs that have given me inspiration.
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Protest at KB Home Headquarters - Rally & Press Conference
Home Owners for Better Building joined with members of LULAC and its national president Rosa Rosales, the Cesar Chavez March for Justice Committee, Mirasol residents as well as other disgruntled KB Homeowners in a march on KB Home Headquarters.  HOBB Opinion of the Mirasol Fiasco - KB Home constructed defective homes funded by taxpayers and the HUD Office of Inspector General audit confirmed $4M was unaccounted for on the Mirasol project.  Mirasol was a program that was to provide homes for those in need with a promise of homeownership however, KB robed taxpayers and SAHA robed families who could least afford it.  No corporate empire like KB Home should go unpunished for cheating families, rich or poor.  See Protest Photos....  See Video Protest 

A Court Case That Could Be A Sign of the Times
On Feb. 6, Bolden filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court along with her husband, Lonnie Bolden, and her neighbors David and Dolores Contreras against her builder KB Home, her lender Countrywide Financial Corp., along with affiliated businesses and two appraisers. Alleging that the defendants conspired to inflate the price of their homes through deceptive, fraudulent appraisals, the suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages. Asserting that they are the tip of the iceberg and that many other KB Home owners have been harmed by the same practices, the plaintiffs are requesting class-action status for all California KB Home buyers who obtained financing through Countrywide between Aug. 1, 2005 and July 31, 2006.

KB Home's Mezger Gets $6 Million Bonus in Slump: Graef Crystal
Revenue dropped to $6.4 billion from $9.4 billion. Diluted earnings per share plummeted to negative $12.04 from positive $5.82 the year before. Total shareholder return for the fiscal year ended Nov. 30, 2007, was negative 58 percent compared with a positive 7.7 percent return on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index.