Unlike the last 40 years, consumers buying a new home are not just focused on home availability, financing, and quality, but in establishing an entirely new expectation on how the American home is built.

Meritage Homes has spent the last few years working with customers, scientists, and suppliers to reinvent the American home. The result is not a choice between being comfortable and reduced utility bills, but superior construction that provides superior benefits to the people who live in our homes.

For years, buyers have been asking for improvements in the lifestyle available in new homes. According to consumer advocate surveys, home buyers are searching for:

• Better utility cost savings
• Reduced impact on the environment
• Improved quality
• Reduced use of water
• Increased value of their homes

To accomplish this, Meritage Homes redefined the way homes are built by better understanding how our customers live and how they need their home to function. The result is s new strategy that includes building the right homes in the right locations, incorporating open and flexible floor plans, and providing superior components that function better and add more benefits to the people who live in our homes.

One of the largest partners we have in building better homes is the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and US Department of Energy (DOE). Both the EPA and DOE have national research programs dedicated to reducing the amount of wasted energy that comes from inefficiently built homes. These partnerships have allowed Meritage to build homes that function very differently from conventional construction. Read More

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There has been a lot of media attention given recently to home energy labels, and for good reason.  Energy Efficient Building done correctly can provide tremendous reduction in the cost of living in a home. These energy scores can directly impact the amount available for a mortgage, the monthly utility bills, and the resale value of a home.

Meritage Homes was the first national builder to label every home we build with an energy score, and we build communities with energy scores better than any other large builder. A home energy score can translate many of the different types of windows, insulation, appliances, and lighting into one value that directly corresponds to the average utility cost for that home. The score allows customers to clearly understand how changes can reduce total home electricity consumption.

Meritage Homes is the first national company to build 100% of our homes to exceed the EPA’s Energy Star Standards. As a part of our partnership with Energy Star, a RESNet certified building expert inspects and certifies every home we build, and provides an energy label (HERS score). The HERS score compares the estimated energy use of a home versus the typical new home built to the current building code (IECC 2006).

With this label, a consumer can compare between homes to better understand what they cost to operate month-to-month. A lender can adjust the loan qualifications to capture reduced monthly operations cost, and an appraiser can incorporate the included energy efficient features into the appraisal. Read More

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