KB Home and CEO Jeff Mezger '77 Reaching Out to Renters

May 14, 2009

May 14, 2009, Greencastle, Ind. — America's home builders are using creative campaigns to woo the nation's nearly 89 million renters, notes a Dow Jones Newswires story which quotes Jeffrey T.  Mezger, president and CEO of KB Home and 1977 graduate of DePauw University.  The article notes that an estimated 340,000 new single-family homes will be started across the nation this year.

"If every one of (the sales of those homes) was from a renter you're just barely putting a dent in the apartment supply out there," says Mezger. "I think it's a large untapped market."

Dawn Wotapka writes, "KB Home, the nation's fifth-largest builder by annual closings, redid its Web site to highlight monthly payments over the total price. At the Sage at Desert Passage in former bubble market Maricopa, Ariz., 'Right Now You Can Own From $773 a Month,' assuming a down payment of 3.5%, good credit and a 30-year fixed loan."

Mezger calls the new messaging "a very powerful tool," adding, "It's certainly been a help because our sales are up and our first-time buyer sales are up."

Read the complete story at the Web site of the Wall Street Journal.

Learn more about Jeff Mezger in this recent article.

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