Florida class-action suit accuses KB Home of inflating prices

A Florida class-action lawsuit filed Friday accuses KB Home, among the bestselling builders in the Tampa Bay area, of inflating home prices by hundreds of millions of dollars.

Also named as defendants in U.S. District Court in Orlando were Countrywide Financial and LandSafe Appraisal Services.

Florida home buyer Stephanie Sullivan claims the three companies employed a "well-planned scheme" to manipulate home appraisals to justify higher prices during the housing boom. Sullivan paid $426,000 for her Orlando home in 2006 and subsequently lost it to foreclosure.

The law firm representing Sullivan, Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, has filed several lawsuits against builders with the backing of the labor unions trying to organize KB's workforce. In those previous lawsuits, builders have denied wrong doing.