Meritage Homes Announces Entry Into Nashville Market With Acquisition of Phillips Builders

SCOTTSDALE, AZ -- (Marketwired) -- 09/04/13 -- Meritage Homes Corporation (NYSE: MTH), a leading U.S. homebuilder, today announced its entry into the Nashville, Tennessee, market through the acquisition of the assets and operations of Phillips Builders.

The Phillips family has built more than 20,000 homes in Nashville since 1952, spanning three generations. Phillips sells homes that range from approximately $175,000 to $425,000. With this acquisition, Meritage will acquire approximately 500 lots that will be available for future sales and expects to close 150-200 homes in 2014 as the company expands operations in Nashville.

Meritage Homes will operate in Nashville under the Phillips Builders brand name, and Jason and Charlie Phillips will continue to lead the company and grow the homebuilding business for Meritage Homes in Nashville.

"The acquisition of Phillips Builders provides Meritage with a successful operation, respected management team and valuable asset position in the strong and growing Nashville market," said Steven J. Hilton, chairman and CEO of Meritage Homes. "This is our fourth expansion market in the last two years and is consistent with our strategy to enlarge our Southeast Region. We are excited about the additional opportunities for growth that it presents for Meritage."

About Meritage Homes Corporation

Meritage Homes is the ninth-largest public homebuilder in the United States, based on homes closed in 2012. Meritage builds and sells single-family homes for first-time, move-up, luxury and active adult buyers across the Western, Southern and Southeastern United States. As of June 30, 2013, the company had 165 actively selling communities in markets including Sacramento, San Francisco's East Bay, the Central Valley and Southern California; Houston, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Austin and San Antonio, Texas; Phoenix/Scottsdale and Tucson, Arizona; Denver, Colorado; Orlando and Tampa, Florida; Raleigh and Charlotte, North Carolina.

Meritage has designed and built more than 75,000 homes in its 27-year history, and has a reputation for its distinctive style, quality construction, and positive customer experience. Meritage is the industry leader in energy-efficient homebuilding, and in 2013 Meritage received the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year for Sustained Excellence Award for its innovation and industry leadership in energy-efficient homebuilding. Meritage was the first national homebuilder to be 100 percent ENERGY STAR® qualified in every home it builds, and far exceeds ENERGY STAR standards today.

For more information, visit meritagehomes.com.

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements include management's projected home closings in Nashville in 2014 and potential growth opportunities relating to the Phillips acquisition.

Such statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of Company management, and current market conditions, which are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. The Company makes no commitment, and disclaims any duty, to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect future events or changes in these expectations.

Meritage's business is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. As a result of those risks and uncertainties, the Company's stock and note prices may fluctuate dramatically. The risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to the following: weakness in the homebuilding market resulting from an unexpected setback in the current economic recovery; the availability of finished lots and undeveloped land; interest rates and changes in the availability and pricing of residential mortgages; the availability and cost of materials and labor; adverse changes in tax laws that benefit our homebuyers; the ability of our potential buyers to sell their existing homes; cancellation rates and home prices in our markets; inflation in the cost of materials used to construct homes; the adverse effect of slower order absorption rates; potential write-downs or write-offs of assets, including pre-acquisition costs and deposits; our potential exposure to natural disasters; competition; the adverse impacts of cancellations resulting from small deposits relating to our sales contracts; construction defect and home warranty claims; our success in prevailing on contested tax positions; our ability to preserve our deferred tax assets and use them within the statutory time limits; delays and risks associated with land development; our ability to obtain performance bonds in connection with our development work; the liquidity of our joint ventures and the ability of our joint venture partners to meet their obligations to us and the joint venture; the loss of key personnel; changes in or our failure to comply with laws and regulations; our lack of geographic diversification; fluctuations in quarterly operating results; our financial leverage and level of indebtedness; our ability to take certain actions because of restrictions contained in the indentures for our senior and senior subordinated notes and our ability to raise additional capital when and if needed; our credit ratings; successful integration of future acquisitions; government regulations and legislative or other initiatives that seek to restrain growth or new housing construction or similar measures; acts of war; the replication of our "Green" technologies by our competitors; our exposure to information technology failures and security breaches; and other factors identified in documents filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including those set forth in our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012, and our most recent quarterly reports under the caption "Risk Factors," which can be found on our website.

Contacts:
Brent Anderson
VP Investor Relations
(972) 580-6360 (office)
Brent.Anderson@meritagehomes.com

Source: Meritage Homes Corp.

Released September 4, 2013