Meritage Homes Management Offers Additional Commentary on Fourth Quarter 2013 Results

SCOTTSDALE, AZ -- (Marketwired) -- 01/09/14 -- In addition to the preliminary fourth quarter results released previously today by Meritage Homes Corporation (NYSE: MTH) in connection with its previously announced equity offering, management further commented that fourth quarter 2013 margins are expected to show substantial improvement over the prior year. Management expects to report fourth quarter 2013 home closing gross margin increased by 400-425 basis points over the fourth quarter of 2012. The Company expects to report its full fourth quarter and fiscal year results on February 5, 2014.

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 September 30, 2013, the company had 179 actively selling communities in markets including Sacramento, San Francisco's East Bay, the Central Valley and Orange County, California; Houston, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Austin and San Antonio, Texas; Phoenix/Scottsdale, Green Valley and Tucson, Arizona; Denver, Colorado; Orlando and Tampa, Florida; Raleigh and Charlotte, North Carolina; York County, South Carolina and Nashville, Tennessee.

Meritage has designed and built more than 80,000 homes in its 28-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 those regarding the Company's expected improvement in fourth quarter home closing gross margin, 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 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 under the caption "Risk Factors," which can be found on our website.

Meritage Homes Corporation has filed a registration statement (including a prospectus and a preliminary prospectus supplement) with the SEC for the offering to which this communication relates. Before you invest, you should read the prospectus (including the preliminary prospectus supplement) in that registration statement and other documents Meritage Homes Corporation has filed with the SEC for more complete information about Meritage Homes Corporation and the offering. You may get these documents for free by visiting EDGAR on the SEC web site at www.sec.gov. Alternatively, copies of the prospectus and preliminary prospectus supplement relating to the offering may be obtained from your sales representative: Citigroup Global Markets Inc., fax: (212) 816-7912; J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, 383 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10179 (fax: (212) 622-8358; Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Fax (212) 797-9344; or BofA Merrill Lynch at (866) 500-5408.

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

Source: Meritage Homes Corp.

Released January 9, 2014