Meritage Homes Corporation

and welcome to the second quarter 2026 Meritage Homes Analyst Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. If you should need operator assistance, please press star zero. I would now like to turn the call over to Emily Tadano, Vice President of Investor Relations and External Communications. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Good morning and welcome to our analyst call to discuss our second quarter 2026 results. Thank you so much for joining us. Those and any other projections represent the current opinions of management, which are subject to change at any time and we assume no obligation to update them. Any forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain. Our actual results may be materially different than our expectations due to a wide variety of risk factors, which we have identified and listed on this slide, as well as in our earnings release and most recent filing for the Securities and Exchange Commission, specifically our 2025 Annual Report on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q for subsequent quarters. We have also provided a reconciliation of certain non-GAAP financial measures referred to in our earnings relief as compared to their closest related GAAP measures. With us today to discuss our results are Steve Hilton, Executive Chairman, Phillippe Lord, CEO, and Hilla Sferruzza, Executive Vice President and CFO of Meritage Homes. We expect today's call to last about an hour. A replay will be available on our website later today. I'll now turn it over to Mr. Hilton. Steve?

Thank you, Emily. Welcome to everyone joining today's call. Today, I'll begin with a brief overview of market conditions and our second quarter results. Philippe will then discuss our strategy and operational progress, followed by Hilla's review of our financial performance and 2026 guidance. Consistent with what others have shared about the spring selling season, we also experienced slower than normal selling conditions, driving quarterly sales orders of 3,575 which were 9% below prior year. Demand remained relatively stable between Q1 and Q2 this year with no meaningful sequential deterioration as average absorption pace of 3.5 net sales per month this quarter was in line with a 3.6 in the first quarter. Although prospective buyers continue to face affordability pressures and economic uncertainty, we remain confident in the long-term demand for housing at the entry level and first move up price points. and we believe that our strategy of having sufficient available home inventory combined with our growing community count positions us to quickly convert demand into sales this quarter for brief periods of rate relief. Operationally, we continue to focus on what's within our control, delivering a 200% backlog conversion rate, further improving cycle times, and working... Homes Corporation gross margin was 18.6% and adjusted diluted EPS was $1.42 in 30th, 2026. Book value per share increased 5% year-over-year. With that, I'm going to turn it over to Phillippe.