KB Home pulling out of Louisiana
California-based KB Home has announced it will finish current projects in seven months and pull out of the Louisiana housing market. Clint Szubinski, president of the company’s Gulf Coast division, says there wasn’t enough volume in the market as residents are apparently opting to rebuild rather than buy a new house.
“It was a very difficult decision that was not lightly made, but the project was impacted by the difficulties facing the national housing and mortgage industries,” says Sean Clancy, spokesman for the Baton Rouge-based Shaw Group, which formed a joint homebuilding venture with KB Home after Hurricane Katrina. KB was building homes in metro Baton Rouge, Madisonville and New Orleans. Clancy says the move was based on local and national concerns over the subprime meltdown hurting potential buyers’ ability to get a loan to buy a house.
While Clancy could not comment on Shaw Group’s future housing plans, he did say they were working with KB Home to help find work opportunities for the 21 employees in the KB office in Jefferson Parish that will close when its construction projects involving about 200 houses are finished. –Anna Thibodeaux
Source: Baton Rouge Business Report
Bill Cobb, Accurate Valuations Group Appraiser, has operated as a home appraiser for 15 years now primarily in the Greater Baton Rouge, Louisiana market. For more information on Accurate Valuations Home Appraisal Group, visit FHA Appraisers in East Baton Rouge, West Baton Rouge, Ascension & Livingston Parishes
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