BRIEFCASE.

Byline: - Staff and Wire Services

Homes affordable for 17% in region

The percentage of households able to afford a median-price home in the Los Angeles region stood at 17 percent in February, down 5 percentage points from a year ago, a Realtors group reported Thursday.

The Housing Affordability Index for the Los Angeles area was unchanged, however, from January, according to the California Association of Realtors.

Statewide, the index was 19 percent - slightly better than last month, when 18 percent of California households could afford a median-price home. The index was down 6 percent compared with February 2004, however.

The minimum household income needed to purchase a median-price home at $471,620 in California in February was $109,380, based on a mortgage rate of 5.71 percent and a down payment of 20 percent.

KB Home splits company stock

KB Home declared on Thursday a two-for-one split of the company's common stock in the form of a 100 percent stock dividend payable on or about April 28.

The stock split was declared immediately after stockholders approved an increase in the number of authorized shares of the company's common stock from 100 million to 300 million.

The board also declared a quarterly cash dividend of 18.75 cents per share of common stock on a post-split basis, payable May 26.

Cherokee seeing rise in net income

VAN NUYS - Cherokee Inc. announced on Thursday net income of $4 million, or 46 cents per share, for the fourth quarter of 2004, compared with $2.7 million, or 32 cents per share, over the same period a year ago.

For the year, net income was $17.2 million, or $1.98 per share, compared with $14.2 million, or $1.70 per share, for the previous year.

Times acquires two local papers

The Los Angeles Times announced Thursday that its Times Community News division acquired the La Canada Valley Sun and the Crescenta Valley Sun from Century Group newspapers.

The La Canada Valley Sun serves La Canada Flintridge and is distributed to 10,000 homes and businesses on Thursdays.

The Crescenta Valley Sun serves La Crescenta, Montrose and northern Glendale and has a Friday circulation of 15,000.

Both weekly papers are located near Glendale, where Times Community News publishes three newspapers.

GM pulling its ads from L.A. Times

General Motors said Thursday that it would pull its advertisements from the Los Angeles Times ``until further notice.'' A GM spokeswoman characterized the decision as the culmination of a long-running dispute between the automaker and the newspaper over how GM is portrayed.

``It involves news reporting, it involves opinion. It's pretty broad- based, and we've made our objections well known to the Times,'' the GM spokeswoman, Ryndee Carney, said.

Carney would not cite specific instances of the editorial content that rankled GM, but coverage of the company, particularly in recent car reviews, has been far from flattering. A headline on the Times' review of the Pontiac G6 on Wednesday said, ``At General Motors, let the impeachment proceedings begin.''

GM is the world's largest automaker. California is the nation's largest car market and the Times is the state's largest newspaper, with a daily circulation of about 900,000. GM declined to place a value on its account or say how much it has spent on advertising in the paper.