Meritage Homes Reports Strong Earnings Growth in the Second Quarter of 2012

Diluted EPS of $0.24 Driven by Higher Home Closings, Revenue, Gross Margins and Operating Leverage

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., July 26, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Meritage Homes Corporation (NYSE:MTH), a leading U.S. homebuilder, today announced second quarter results for the period ended June 30, 2012.

SECOND QUARTER 2012 SELECTED HIGHLIGHTS:

• Net income of $8.0M, which includes a $5.8M loss on early extinguishment of debt in May 2012, $0.9M of impairments and a tax benefit of $5.2M, primarily from reversal of a portion of a valuation allowance recorded against a deferred state tax asset in Florida
• Highest home orders and total order value since the second quarter of 2008
• Absorptions increased to 9.0 orders per community for the quarter, up from 6.4 per community in 2011
• Home closing gross margin of 18.5% in 2012 compared to 18.0% in 2011
• G&A expense as a percentage of revenue improved by 90 basis points, commissions and other sales costs improved by 40 basis points, and interest expense improved by 120 basis points over the prior year's second quarter
• Ended with 17,586 total lots under control and total cash and securities of $205M at June 30, 2012, after adding 2,133 new lots during the quarter

MANAGEMENT COMMENTS

"The housing market continued to improve during the second quarter of 2012, and June represented our eighth straight month of year-over-year increases in order volume, capping off our highest quarter for orders in four years," said Steven J. Hilton, chairman and chief executive officer of Meritage Homes. "We improved over last year on our key operating metrics this quarter, increasing closings, average sales prices, revenue, orders, backlog, gross margin and net earnings. Our employees did a fantastic job of capitalizing on improving market conditions, and our strong backlog supports our belief that we will close over 4,000 homes this year.

"We also took steps to further strengthen our balance sheet and position Meritage for additional growth," continued Mr. Hilton. "We refinanced approximately $300 million of long-term debt in April to push out our earliest maturity to 2017, and successfully completed a well-received follow-on stock offering earlier this month. The stock offering provided $87 million of cash that we plan to use for growth, including the purchase of land and opening of more communities as the market recovers. Investors demonstrated confidence in our strategy, including our expansion into more Southeast markets like Raleigh, Charlotte and Tampa."

NET EARNINGS

Meritage reported net income of $8.0 million or $0.24 per diluted share for the second quarter of 2012, compared to $562,000 or $0.02 per diluted share for the second quarter of 2011. The 2012 results included a $5.8 million loss on early extinguishment of debt and $863,000 of impairments, compared to $590,000 of impairments in the second quarter of 2011. Net income also included a $5.2 million tax benefit primarily due to the reversal of most of a valuation allowance previously recorded against the company's deferred state tax asset in Florida. Excluding those items, adjusted pre-tax income for the second quarter was $9.5 million in 2012 compared to $1.3 million in 2011. Adjusted pre-tax margin increased by 280 basis points to 3.4% from 0.6% in the second quarters of 2012 and 2011, respectively.

Home closing gross margin rose to 18.5% in the second quarter of 2012, from 18.0% in the prior year and 17.2% in the first quarter of 2012. Margins increased due to sales price increases and construction overhead leverage, partially offset by increases in various cost components.

Home closing revenue was 28% higher than the prior year, combining a 22% increase in closings with a 5% increase in average closing prices. California and Florida led with 80% and 81% growth in closing revenue over 2011, followed by Arizona and Colorado, with 57% and 44% growth, respectively. Higher average closing prices reflected the combination of price increases in many communities due to improved demand and a mix shift toward higher-priced homes.

Higher closing revenue resulted in greater leverage of fixed costs. Commissions and selling expenses decreased by 40 basis points year over year, to 8.2% of home closing revenue in the second quarter of 2012 from 8.6% of home closing revenue in prior year. General and administrative expenses decreased by 90 basis points year over year, to 5.9% from 6.8% of total revenue. Interest expense decreased by $1.2 million or 120 basis points from the prior year, as a greater portion of interest incurred was capitalized to assets under development.

HOME ORDERS

Demand continued to be strong during the second quarter of 2012. Net order value increased 63% over the prior year, due to 49% growth in orders and a 10% increase in average prices in the second quarter of 2012 compared to 2011. Net orders also increased by 18% sequentially to 1,353 in the second quarter of 2012 from 1,144 in the first quarter, resulting in the highest level of quarterly orders for Meritage since the second quarter of 2008.

As demand accelerated in 2012, Meritage's average orders per community improved 41% to 9.0 in the second quarter of 2012, from 6.4 in the prior year and 7.5 in the first quarter this year. Cancellations also fell to 13% of gross orders in the second quarter of 2012 from 15% in both the second quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2012.

California showed the strongest demand, with nearly three times the number of orders in the second quarter of 2012 as compared to 2011, and a 28% increase in actively selling communities. Average sales prices increased 11% year over year in California, resulting in a 229% increase in total order value over the prior year.

Arizona achieved a 61% increase in orders despite slightly fewer communities open in 2012.

Net orders in Florida grew 47% while Colorado grew 24% year over year, and Meritage recorded its first orders in Tampa during the second quarter of 2012.

In its third quarter since opening its first communities for sale, Meritage's new North Carolina operations turned in 40 orders from five active communities in the second quarter of 2012.

Meritage opened a total of 19 new communities during the second quarter while selling out of 18 communities, ending the quarter with 151 actively selling communities at June 30, 2012, up from 150 at the start of the quarter and 145 at June 30, 2011.

YEAR TO DATE RESULTS

With second quarter net income more than offsetting 2012's first quarter loss, Meritage reported year-to-date net income of $3.3 million or $0.10 per diluted share, a significant improvement over the first half of 2011's net loss of $6.1 million or $0.19 per diluted share. Year-to-date net income also included a $5.0 million tax benefit. Excluding the $5.8 million loss on early extinguishment of debt in 2012, about $1.2 million of impairments in both years, and before the partial reversal of a valuation allowance previously recorded against Florida's deferred state tax asset, Meritage produced adjusted pretax income of $5.2 million for the first six months of 2012, compared to an adjusted pretax loss of $4.4 million for the same period in 2011.

Home closings and closing revenue for the first half of 2012 increased 17% and 22% respectively, compared to the first six months of 2011, including a 4% increase in average closing prices. Year-to-date home closing gross margins improved by 30 basis points to 17.9% in 2012 compared to 17.6% in 2011.

Year-to-date net orders increased 43% in 2012 over 2011, and combined with a 7% increase in average sales prices to increase total order value by 52% year over year.

Total orders in backlog increased sequentially by 24% during the second quarter to 1,611 homes with a total value of $458 million at June 30, 2012, which represented a 62% year over year increase in orders and a 75% increase in total order value over the second quarter of 2011. With this large backlog entering into the second half of 2012, management expects to show continued revenue and earnings growth in 2012, and to be profitable for the full year.

BALANCE SHEET

Meritage ended the quarter with $205 million in cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash and securities, after putting 2,133 new lots under control during the second quarter. The company controlled a total of 17,586 lots as of June 30, 2012, net of 1,476 lots put into production for homes started during the quarter. Based on trailing twelve months closings of 3,535 homes, this is equivalent to a 5.0 year supply of lots.

Net debt to total capital ratio rose to 44.1% at June 30, 2012 from 31.5% at June 30, 2011. Subsequent to the end of the second quarter, the company issued 2,645,000 shares through a follow-on stock offering in July. Net proceeds from the offering were $87.1 million, increasing the company's liquidity. Pro forma net debt to capital would have been 34.3% as of June 30, 2012 including this additional cash and equity.

The company closed on an unsecured revolving credit facility earlier this week with commitments from four banks for a total of $125 million that can be used to provide short-term working capital as order volumes grow.

CONFERENCE CALL

Management will host a conference call to discuss these results on Thursday, July 26, 2012 at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time (7:30 a.m. Pacific Time.) The call will be webcast by Business-to-Investor, Inc. (B2i), with an accompanying slideshow on the "Investor Relations" page of the Company's web site at http://investors.meritagehomes.com. For telephone participants, the dial-in number is 877-317-6789 and the conference number is 10015970. Participants are encouraged to dial in five minutes before the call begins. A replay of the call will be available for fifteen days, beginning at 12:00 p.m. ET on July 26, 2012 on the website noted above, or by dialing 877-344-7529, and referencing conference number 10015970. For more information, visit meritagehomes.com.

About Meritage Homes Corporation

Meritage Homes is the ninth-largest public homebuilder in the United States based on homes closed in 2011. Meritage builds a variety of homes across the Southern and Western states to appeal to a wide range of buyers, including first-time, move-up, luxury and active adults. As of June 30, 2012, the company had 151 actively selling communities in 15 metropolitan areas, including Northern California, East Bay/Central Valley and Southern California, Houston, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Austin, San Antonio, Phoenix/Scottsdale, Tucson, Las Vegas, Denver, Orlando, Tampa and Raleigh-Durham. In 2012, Meritage also announced its entry into the Charlotte market.

Meritage is an industry leader in innovation and energy efficiency. Meritage was the first national homebuilder to be 100 percent ENERGY STAR® qualified in every home it builds, and far exceeds ENERGY STAR standards in most of its communities. 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.

For more information, visit meritagehomes.com.

The Meritage Homes Corporation logo is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=2624

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 2012 closings, revenue and earnings growth, its profitability in 2012, future growth opportunities and the potential uses of proceeds from the offering of its common stock, all of which are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. 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 economic conditions; interest rates and changes in the availability and pricing of residential mortgages; 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; availability of materials and labor and resulting inflation in the cost 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; the availability of finished lots and undeveloped land; our potential exposure to natural disasters; the liquidity of our joint ventures and the ability of our joint venture partners to meet their obligations to us and the joint venture; competition; the success of our strategies in the current homebuilding market and economic environment; 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; the impact of deferred tax valuation allowances and our ability to preserve our operating loss carryforwards; our ability to obtain performance bonds in connection with our development work; the loss of key personnel; our failure to comply with laws and regulations; our lack of geographic diversification; fluctuations in quarterly operating results; the Company's financial leverage and level of indebtedness; our ability to take certain actions because of restrictions contained in the indentures for the Company's 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, 2011 and most recent 10-Q under the caption "Risk Factors," which can be found on our website.

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

Released July 26, 2012