KB Home is an American homebuilding company founded in 1957 as Kaufman & Broad in Detroit, Michigan.
[3] By streamlining the construction process and eliminating basements, offering a carport instead, they could price the houses so the monthly mortgage would be less than the rent for a two-bedroom apartment.
[3][4] After one weekend, seventeen were sold and within two years, Kaufman and Broad had built 600 homes in the Detroit suburbs.
[citation needed] As part of a promotion, in 1997 the company built a life-sized replica of The Simpsons cartoon home in Henderson, Nevada.
[5] It has since engaged in homebuilding promotions with Martha Stewart (2005), The Walt Disney Company (2008) and The Ellen DeGeneres Show (2012).
[6] In November 2006, KB Home president, CEO, and chairman Bruce Karatz resigned after an internal accounting probe into his alleged backdating of stock options.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Karatz was one of the most highly paid executives in 2005, earning almost $156 million, primarily from options.
[18][9][19] In April 2022, KB Home earned its 12th Energy Star Partner of the Year – Sustained Excellence Award.
[20][21] In July, the company confirmed plans to build homes in California, Nevada, and Arizona to meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s WaterSense specifications.
[28] KB Home expanded the ZeroHouse 2.0 to the Mid-Atlantic states in June 2012 with the unveiling of the first of its kind in Waldorf, Maryland.