Martha Stewart comes to rescue the home industry

Home builders are in trouble. Wall Street just has to look at stock prices for Hovnanian (NYSE: HOV) and Beazer (NYSE: BZH) to see that they and their peers have lost half of their value in a year.

But, builder KB Home (NYSE: KBH) has a bit of a secret weapon. Its homes, designed in part by Martha Stewart, are still selling relatively well. The Stewart homes are only 5% of KB's sales, but as The Wall Street Journal points out [subscription required]: "From March through June 15, the two Martha Stewart developments alone drew 42% of the people who visited KB's 22 subdivisions in the Atlanta metro area."

Some buyers, it seems, want the homes because they believe that Stewart signifies "class". Others think the homes will have better resale values.

The venture may offer a bright spot of the entire industry. Nothing will get home sales back on track except a major upturn in the market. But, the idea of home builders selling new inventory in celebrity partnerships may have a future.

The Elvis Presley model may be on the market sooner than people think.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.