Meritage Homes Names James Thrower Region President of Its Newly Formed South Region

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Meritage Homes Corporation MTH, a leading U.S. homebuilder, announced today that the company has created a new South Region to be based in Atlanta. Initially, the region will include Meritage's recently acquired operations in Nashville, Tennessee, and the Atlanta and Greenville-Spartanburg markets to be added with the acquisition of Legendary Communities that was announced earlier this week. This will be the fourth operating region for Meritage Homes, in addition to the existing West, Central and East regions.

James (Jay) Thrower has been hired to lead the new region as South Region President. Jay has more than 25 years of experience in the real estate and homebuilding industry, including 17 years of senior management positions with two other national homebuilders, where he was responsible for operations in Georgia and North and South Carolina.

“We are excited to have Jay join us to lead and grow our new South Region,” said Steven J. Hilton, chairman and CEO of Meritage Homes. “Jay brings a wealth of experience in this region and an impressive record of accomplishments in such areas as land acquisition and development, product design and development, sales, construction, finance, purchasing, estimating, marketing, operations, and management. He will be a valuable addition to our organization and help us continue to expand and diversify our geographic footprint.”

“Meritage is truly a leader in the homebuilding industry, and I am honored to be joining a quality organization with an opportunity to establish and grow a new region that we expect will contribute meaningfully to Meritage's revenue and earnings growth within the next several years,” said Mr. Thrower.

About Meritage Homes Corporation

Meritage Homes is the ninth-largest public homebuilder in the United States, based on homes closed in 2013. 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 March 31, 2014, the company had 189 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 and Fort Collins, 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 has received the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year for Sustained Excellence Award in 2013 and 2014, for 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.