Meritage Homes CORP

The key components of our executive compensation program are base salary, annual incentive cash compensation and long-term equity incentive compensation. In addition, our NEOs have the opportunity to participate in our company-wide 401(k) plan, a non-qualified deferred compensation plan, and to receive limited certain personal benefits, as described below under "—Other Compensation". The employment agreements of our CEO and other NEOs are further described in this proxy statement under the section “—Employment Agreements in Effect for 2025.”

Our executive compensation program is designed based on the following strategic principles:

•Alignment with key outcomes of our business strategies;

•Appropriate balance of short- and long-term incentive award opportunity;

•Market-competitive total compensation opportunity within our peer group;

•Appropriate alignment with our stockholders by delivering a significant percentage of total compensation opportunity through equity and including goals that are measured by relative total shareholder return;

•Setting a total compensation package where a significant percentage of total compensation is at risk;

•Transparency in the communication of plan design and performance goals to enhance understanding; and

•Adherence to sound governance practices, including the prudent management of compensation risk.

Based on the results of the analysis, the components of our NEO compensation program are as outlined below.

Base Salary

The purpose of the base salary is to provide a fixed amount of cash compensation that is not variable and is competitive with market practices. Consistent with industry practice and our pay-for-performance objective, the base salary for each of our NEOs is designed to account for only a portion of their overall total target compensation. We target our NEO base salaries to be competitive with our compensation peer group. We believe the NEO base salaries are appropriate based on the officers’ roles, responsibilities, experience and contributions to the Company, as well as compared to market data.

Annual Cash Incentive Compensation ("Non-Equity Incentive Plan")

We believe our Non-Equity Incentive Plan focuses our NEOs on the most important short-term measures of our business, establishes a clear connection between performance and earned compensation, and provides transparency to our stockholders as to the operation of our Non-Equity Incentive Plan. Each goal represents a fixed percentage of total potential cash incentive compensation with each goal assessed separately from the others.

The specific details of each NEO’s 2025 annual cash incentive compensation are further described under the section “—Employment Agreements in Effect for 2025”.

Discretionary Bonuses

Discretionary bonuses may be awarded based on specific achievements of an individual beyond those of the performance measurements included in the Non-Equity Incentive Plan calculations, subject to approval by the Compensation Committee. Although contemplated within the compensation program for our NEOs, the use of discretionary bonuses has been and is expected to continue to be very limited. There were no discretionary bonuses paid to our NEOs in 2025.

34 MERITAGE HOMES |2026 Proxy Statement

COMPENSATION DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS

Long-Term Equity Incentive Awards

Long-term equity incentive awards are intended to provide compensation opportunities based on the creation of stockholder value and an increase in our stock price. The employment agreements in effect for 2025 for our NEOs allow for grants of performance-based restricted stock units ("performance share awards") and time-based restricted stock units, both of which have a three-year cliff vesting schedule.

In connection with our equity awards, we have also adopted stock ownership requirements as further discussed below in the section “—Stock Ownership Requirements.”

The Compensation Committee believes that equity awards provide a strong long-term incentive for our NEOs (and other officers and employees) that, along with their stock ownership, helps to align the interests of management with our stockholders. The Compensation Committee believes that these equity-based awards provide the opportunity for our NEOs to benefit from strong stock performance and, particularly in the case of the restricted stock unit awards, the NEOs focus on balancing stability and preservation of stock value against being incentivized to potentially take on an imprudent level of additional risk to drive stock appreciation which could occur with more contingent equity awards such as stock options. The Company and the Compensation Committee also believe that an appropriate mix of cash compensation and non-cash compensation in the form of equity awards is necessary and appropriate because, among other reasons, equity-based awards do not require the use of our working capital. The Compensation Committee is mindful of the fact that equity awards represent an expense under generally accepted accounting principles and a cost to the Company and its stockholders in the form of dilution. Accordingly, the Company seeks to achieve an appropriate balance between cash and non-cash compensation such that the NEOs are appropriately incentivized, our working capital and financial results are minimally affected, and our stockholders do not experience undue dilution.

Other Compensation

The Compensation Committee does not believe in the extensive use of perquisites as a component of executive compensation. The Compensation Committee believes that the perquisites provided to our NEOs (above those received by all employees or officers in general) are limited but help maintain the competitiveness of our compensation package as compared to our peer group companies. The types of perquisites we provide to our NEOs generally consist of car allowances, enhanced life and disability or long-term care insurance, and limited healthcare benefits such as reimbursement of certain physical exam costs.