Meritage Homes Announces Repurchase of One Million Shares of Stock and Resignation of John Landon as Director

The stock repurchase was approved by members of the board who hadno direct interest in the transaction and was supported by a fairnessopinion from JMP Securities LLC.

The negotiated purchase price of $52.19 per share was based on the$50.18 closing price of Meritage Homes' stock on Friday, June 9, 2006,plus a four percent premium. This price represents a 9.6% discount tothe 30-day moving average on that date.

The shares were purchased under the Company's existing $100million stock repurchase authorization from Meritage's board ofdirectors, of which $86 million remained prior to this transaction.

"We believe this transaction was in the best interest of ourstockholders, allowing us to reduce our outstanding shares whilesimultaneously reducing John's ownership position in Meritage by abouthalf," said Meritage Chairman Steven J. Hilton. "With thistransaction, we have returned nearly $116 million to our shareholdersby repurchasing more than seven percent of our outstanding commonstock in the past nine months."

About Meritage Homes Corporation

Meritage Homes Corporation (NYSE:MTH) is a leader in thehomebuilding industry. The Company is ranked by Builder magazine asthe 13th largest homebuilder in the U.S. and has been perenniallyincluded on Forbes' "Platinum 400 -- Best Big Companies in America,"the Fortune 1000 and Fortune's "Fastest Growing Companies in America"lists, and the S&P SmallCap 600 Index. Meritage operates infast-growing states of the southern and western United States,including six of the top 10 single-family housing markets in thecountry, and has reported 18 consecutive years of record revenue andnet earnings. For more information about the Company, visitwww.meritagehomes.com. Meritage is a member of the Public HomeBuilders Council of America (www.phbca.org).