Kaufman Broad Home Corp

In one of the largest land purchases in Orange County this year, Kaufman & Broad Home Corp. on Tuesday bought 650 lots just outside the upscale planned community of Coto de Caza. The company, California's largest home builder, plans nearly 900 moderately priced houses for the 92-acre South County parcel, which real estate insiders valued at about $35 million. Los Angeles-based Kaufman & Broad, a specialist in homes for first-time buyers, will be the primary builder.

Kaufman & Broad Home Corp., the largest U.S. home builder, on Wednesday said fiscal fourth-quarter earnings rose a better-than-expected 50% as a booming housing market helped boost deliveries. The Los Angeles-based company's net income for the three months ended Nov. 30 rose to $41.8 million, or $1.02 a share, from $27.9 million, or 69 cents, in the year-earlier period. That beat the 87-cent average forecast of analysts polled by First Call Corp.

Roland F. Osgood has resigned as head of home building giant Kaufman & Broad Home Corp. divisions in Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties, effective next month. Sources said Osgood, who started Kaufman & Broad's Orange County division in 1991, will be taking over Centex Homes' Southern California division, which has struggled to build a presence since entering the local market in the mid-1980s.

In another sign of the housing upturn in California, the state's largest single-family home builder, Kaufman & Broad Home Corp., said Tuesday that its home sales increased to 790 in the first quarter ended Feb. 28 from 650 in the same quarter a year ago.

Aided by plummeting mortgage interest rates, Los Angeles-based home builder Kaufman & Broad Home Corp. reported sharply higher earnings in the fourth quarter. Full-year earnings were lower. California's largest builder of single-family homes said its profit nearly quadrupled to $13.3 million for the quarter ended Nov. 30, 1991, from $3.2 million during the same period in 1990. Revenue of $317.8 million was down 15% from $375.

Kaufman & Broad Home Corp. said Thursday that its fiscal-third-quarter earnings rose a greater-than-expected 36% as it benefited from a hot housing market and acquisitions. The Los Angeles-based company also said it's considering selling its operations in France, where it is one of the country's biggest home builders. Proceeds would be used to reduce debt or repurchase stock in an attempt to boost its sagging stock price, the company said. For the quarter ended Aug.

A group of Corona homeowners have sued Kaufman & Broad Home Corp., alleging that the Los Angeles developer sold them homes with faulty roofs, drainage problems, poorly reinforced foundation slabs and cracks in the interior drywall and exterior stucco.

Roland F. Osgood, former head of residential development for Irvine Co., has been named by Kaufman & Broad Home Corp. to launch a subsidiary to crack the mid-range Southern California housing market that has eluded the company for years. The yet-to-be-named division will not carry a Kaufman & Broad designation--a deliberate effort to create a separate identity for the new unit in home buyers' minds.

Roland F. Osgood, former head of residential development for the Irvine Co., has been named by Kaufman & Broad Home Corp. to start a new subsidiary to crack the mid-range Southern California housing market that has eluded K&B for years. The as-yet-unnamed division will not carry a Kaufman & Broad designation--a deliberate effort to create a separate identity for the new unit in the minds of home buyers.

In a move that bolsters its new reputation as one of the West's most aggressive home-building firms, Kaufman & Broad Home Corp. said Wednesday that it has entered a preliminary agreement to acquire controlling interest in J.M. Peters Co. K&B officials were on a stock-selling trip and unavailable to elaborate on the terse announcement issued from the company's Los Angeles headquarters.