KB Home on Thursday said its fourth-quarter profit soared 66 percent as it sold more homes with higher selling prices.

Shares of the L.A.-based homebuilder, which released its results after the market closed Thursday, were up more than 1.7 percent to $75.20 in after-hours trading.

KB Home reported fourth-quarter net income of $311 million, or $3.51 a share, compared with $187 million, or $2.21 a share, for the like period a year earlier. Revenues rose 32 percent to $3.2 billion.

Analysts had expected earnings of $3.34 on revenues of $3.27 billion.

Net income rose mainly due to higher revenues and a significantly improved operating margin, fueled by higher house prices.

Revenue within the company’s homebuilding operations grew 33 percent to $3.1 billion on a 16 percent increase in unit deliveries to 11,946 from 10,285 a year earlier. The average unit selling price jumped 15 percent to $262,700 from $229,200 in the year-prior period.

KB Home generated 9,747 net orders in the fourth quarter, up 15 percent from 8,516 orders the year before. It ended the quarter with 25,722 homes under contract and awaiting construction, up 27 percent. The value of those homes rose 40 percent to $6.76 billion.

The company reaffirmed its earlier earnings projection of $11.25 per share for 2006.