Meritage Homes Corporation

Greetings and welcome to the third 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, VP of Investor Relations and External Communications. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Good morning and welcome to our analyst call to discuss our third quarter 2020 fiction results. We issued the press release yesterday after the market closed. You can find it along with the slides we will refer to during this call on our website at investors.meritagehomes.com or by selecting the investor relations link at the bottom of our homepage. Please refer to slide two, cautioning you that our statements during this call, as well as in the earnings release and accompanying slides, contain forward-looking statements. 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 filings with 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 release 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 start by sharing our thoughts on the current market dynamics and covering the key third quarter results. Phillippe will then discuss our strategy, provide additional color on our operating metrics, followed by Hilla's review of our financial performance in our capital and liquidity position. Since we last spoke to you on our Q2 earnings call, external factors have exacerbated the uncertainty across the housing market. While job growth has remained a positive highlight, rising mortgage rates have further constrained affordability, increasing rate buy-down costs, and overall incentive usage and made homebuyers more hesitant to commit to a home purchase. Compounding these challenges are persistent inflationary pressures and growing concerns about job security. The emphasis backdrop, we generated 3,083 sales orders in the third quarter of 2026, down 15% from the prior year despite a higher store count, but still achieving an absorption pace of three net sales per month. While we believe that these headwinds may continue in the short term, the long-term fundamentals in the U.S. supporting homeownership demand have not changed. Variable demographics continue to underpin demand for entry-level and first-move-up product, and homes at affordable price points remain desirable. During the third quarter, we closed 3,187 homes, generating $1.2 billion in home-closing revenue. Adjusted home-closing gross margin was 17.9%. and adjusted diluted APS was $1.11, excluding $6 million of real estate inventory impairments. Inclusive of $285 million of year-to-date share repurchases as of September 30, 2026, book value per share increased 4% year-over-year. And with that, I'll now turn it over to Phillippe. Thank you, Steve.