Meritage Homes Announces Pricing of Its Common Stock Offering

Meritage Homes Announces Pricing of Its Common Stock Offering

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., July 9, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Meritage Homes Corporation
(NYSE:MTH), a leading U.S. homebuilder, announced today that it has priced a
registered public offering of 2,300,000 shares of its common stock at $34.75
per share, for net proceeds of approximately $75.7 million after underwriting
discounts and estimated offering expenses. The offering was upsized from the
original 2,000,000 shares. As part of the offering, the Company granted the
underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 345,000 additional shares,
which, if exercised in full, would result in combined net proceeds of
approximately $87.1 million. The offering is expected to close on July 13,
2012, subject to customary closing conditions. The Company plans to use the
proceeds received from the offering for working capital and other general
corporate purposes.

Citigroup, JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank Securities acted as joint book-running
managers for the offering. BofA Merrill Lynch acted as co-manager for the
offering.

The offering was made pursuant to an effective shelf registration statement
previously filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Shares of the
Company's common stock were offered only pursuant to a prospectus and
prospectus supplement that form a part of the registration statement, which
are available on the SEC's website www.sec.gov. A printed copy of the
prospectus and prospectus supplement relating to the offering may be obtained
by contacting Citigroup, Brooklyn Army Terminal, 140 58th Street, Brooklyn,
New York 11220, Telephone: (800) 831-9146; J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, c/o
Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, New York
11717 or by calling 1-866-803-9204; Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Attn:
Prospectus Group, 60 Wall Street, New York, New York 10005-2836 or by
telephone at: (800) 503-4611, or by email at: prospectus.CPDG@db.com; or BofA
Merrill Lynch, 222 Broadway, 7th Floor, New York, New York 10038, Attn:
Prospectus Department, or by email at: dg.prospectus_requests@baml.com.

This release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an
offer to buy any of these securities, nor shall there be any sale of these
securities in any state in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be
unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of
any such state.

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 March 31, 2012, the
company had 150 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, and recently announced its entry into the Charlotte market.

Meritage was the first large national homebuilder to be 100 percent ENERGY
STAR® qualified in every home started since January 1, 2010, and far exceeds
ENERGY STAR standards in most of its communities. Meritage has designed and
built more than 70,000 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
http://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 intended use of proceeds from the offering of
its common stock, 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
the current economic downturn; 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; inflation in the
cost of materials used to construct homes; the adverse effect of slower orders
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
orders 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;
the availability and cost of materials and labor; 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 under the caption "Risk
Factors," which can be found on our website.

CONTACT: Brent Anderson
         VP Investor Relations
         972.580.6360
         Brent.anderson@meritagehomes.com

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