Meritage Homes Corporation (NYSE: MTH) said Thursday it will donate its thirteenth home to Operation Homefront, a national nonprofit serving America’s military families.
Together, Meritage and Operation Homefront will welcome a military family into a brand new, mortgage-free, and energy-efficient Meritage home in Canton, Georgia, located north of Atlanta and help them learn how to become successful home owners.
Operation Homefront will select the recipient for the new home through its Homes on the Homefront (HOTH) program. Families in the HOTH program work directly with Operation Homefront caseworkers and financial counselors to build up savings, reduce debt, and learn the skills to manage their home. Upon graduation from the program, the family will be deeded the home mortgage-free. This life-changing opportunity will be announced the week of September 11, with keys awarded to the family around Veterans Day.
This is the seventh year Meritage Homes has built and donated new homes to Operation Homefront, helping provide military families with the foundation to become strong, stable, and secure in communities across the country.
“We are excited to continue our tradition of partnering with Operation Homefront to build a beautiful home for yet another deserving military family,” said Steven J. Hilton, chairman and CEO of Meritage Homes.
The three-bedroom, two-bathroom ranch home will be built in a LiVE.NOW community called The Vistas of Towne Mill. As with all Operation Homefront homes, it will include handicap-accessible options such as wider doorways and zero entry showers. It will also include a two-car garage, private study/flex room, a covered outdoor living area, the M.Connected HomeTM Automation Suite and an array of money-saving features.
Last year, a Meritage home in Commerce City, Colo. was donated to U.S. Army Specialist and two-time Purple Heart recipient Herbert Jackson and his family. “We are so grateful for the opportunity to move toward a stronger, more stable, and secure future,” said Jackson.
The HOTH program offers military families the foundation for long-term stability and resiliency. More than 650 military families have been entered into the program and since 2012, Operation Homefront has deeded over 550 homes to military families, at a value of nearly $80 million in home equity.
“We are absolutely thrilled to extend our long-standing relationship with Meritage Homes for the seventh year to place another deserving military family in a mortgage-free home,” said retired Brig. Gen. John I. Pray Jr., president and CEO of Operation Homefront. “We are grateful to the entire Meritage team who shares our commitment to building strong, stable, and secure military families so they can thrive – not simply struggle to get by – in the communities they have worked so hard to protect.”
