KB Home bets on Stewart, New Orleans
KB Home bets on Stewart, New Orleans
It’s 10:30 p.m. in Paris, and Bruce Karatz, CEO of home builder KB Home (KBH) , has just finished dining with Yves Carcelle, CEO of the Louis Vuitton luxury brand, at the George V hotel. Karatz is in town for the board meeting of KB’s French subsidiary, Kaufman & Broad. Last year, KB built 37,000 homes in the USA and France and had sales of $9.4 billion. The Los Angeles-based company has built homes in 15 states, with its largest operations in California, Texas and Florida.
Recently, though, with signs that the U.S. real estate market is softening, KB warned investors that cancellations rose in December and January. Karatz has rescheduled his phone interview with USA TODAY’s Noelle Knox twice in one day and offers his apologies as the conversation begins.