Dive Brief:

• Legendary Communities, a privately held, Atlanta-based home builder that closed about 500 houses last year, will become part of Meritage Homes Corp. in a $130 million deal.
• The purchase gives Meritage footholds in Atlanta and Greenville-Spartanburg, SC, and adds to its footprint in Charlotte, NC, where both companies have operations.
• Bringing in the five-year-old Legendary gives Meritage control of 4,000 home sites and places the company in several rapidly growing southeastern housing markets.

Dive Insight:

Legendary has targeted a section of Meritage's wide-ranging audience, focusing on first and second move-up buyers with houses priced generally from $120,000 to $550,000. Steven J. Hilton, chairman and CEO of Meritage Homes, explained that buying Legendary was a "strategic acquisition for Meritage" that would allow the company to solidify existing southeastern operations while expanding into rapidly growing markets in Atlanta and Greenville-Spartanburg.​

Entering Atlanta puts Meritage in the fastest-growing market in the U.S., as measured by single-family permits issued last year. Single-family permits in Greenville-Spartanburg are also expected to rise by 20% between 2013 and 2015.