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KB Home third quarter earnings preview

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KB Homes third quarter earnings previewCalifornia based home builder KB Home (NYSE: KBH) will have its turn to impress Wall Street Friday morning when it reports its third quarter earnings numbers.

The last time that KB Home reported earnings was back on June 26 when it missed analyst estimates miserably. Analysts had been expecting to see the company show a loss of 64 cents per share for its second quarter, but the actual earning were much worse, with a loss of $1.03.


This time, analysts are expecting to see the company show a loss of 58 cents per share. Will the company disappoint again this time, or will it be able to put up better than expected numbers? We will get the answer to that question tomorrow morning before the market opens.

The recent trend on home sales could work in the company's favor. Low interest rates, low home prices, and an $8,000 government incentive for new home buyers has helped give the ailing housing market a much needed boost lately.

Sales of new homes have risen for the past four months, and August is expected to see a fifth straight month of increased new home sales.

While it is possible that the company could out pace analyst estimates, it is still a tough environment for home builders such as KB Home to be profitable. In fact, the company has reported losses during each of the past 9 quarters, the last time it was able to show a profit was during the first quarter of 2007.

One reason home builders have had such a hard time as of late is the massive amount of foreclosures that have hit the market over the past couple years. Since foreclosed properties are typically sold at a steep discount, home builders such as KB Home had to think of new ways to compete.

What KB Home did to compete with these low cost homes was to roll out its line of Open Series Homes. These are smaller, and cheaper homes that were designed specifically with the intention of competing against foreclosed properties.

Things are definitely starting to point towards a recovery for the housing market, but there are still many factors applying pressure to the sector. There is a large backlog of homes on the market (currently over 9 months worth), high unemployment, and falling home prices.

How well KB Home has been able to deal with the tough environment will be seen in the morning.

Wall Street has been betting that the housing market is rebounding, and that KB Home is in good shape to take advantage of the recovery. Here is a 6 month chart showing just how well the stock has been doing since the start of July.

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Last updated: November 28, 2009: 05:40 AM

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