Pulte Homes Honored for Energy Efficient Homebuilding

--Pulte Tops All Homebuilders with 649 "Builders Challenge" Homes in 2008BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich., Feb 11, 2009 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Pulte Homes (NYSE: PHM), one of the nation's largest homebuilders and a leader in energy efficient homebuilding, recently received recognition from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and BASF for the Company's outstanding achievements in the DOE Builders Challenge program. Builders Challenge, launched in 2008, is a voluntary energy-savings program with a goal of constructing homes that achieve 70 or better on the EnergySmart Home Scale. The E-Scale allows homebuyers to see how the energy efficiency of a particular home compares to the DOE energy efficiency goal and other homes.

Pulte Homes was honored during the International Builders' Show in Las Vegas in January for building the highest number of homes to qualify under the Builders Challenge in 2008, with a total of 649 homes constructed through the program's standards in 2008. Pulte's 649 Builders Challenge-qualified homes were constructed in its Las Vegas and Phoenix markets in 2008.

"The U.S. Department of Energy commends Pulte Homes for completion of the most homes under the rigorous Builders Challenge initiative in 2008," said Ed Pollock, manager of the DOE's Builders Challenge initiative. "Pulte's tremendous leadership and commitment to the Builders Challenge is helping to set a new benchmark for production builders across America by demonstrating the value of high performance homes."

The DOE Builders Challenge encourages the nation's homebuilders to create 220,000 high-performance energy-efficient homes by 2012. The 1.3 million homes to be built to the challenge standard between now and 2030 are expected to reduce carbon emissions equivalent to taking 606,000 cars off the road annually.

To learn more about the U.S. DOE EnergySmart Home Scale (E-Scale), visit http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/challenge/energysmart.html.

About Pulte Homes

Pulte Homes, Inc., based in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., is one of America's largest home building companies with operations in 49 markets and 25 states. During its 58-year history, the company has delivered more than 500,000 new homes. Since 2000, Pulte Homes operations have earned more top-three finishes than any other homebuilder in the annual J.D. Power and Associates(R) New-Home Builder Customer Satisfaction Study(SM). Under its Del Webb brand, Pulte is the nation's largest builder of active adult communities for people age 55 and older. Its DiVosta Homes brand is renowned in Florida for its distinctive master-planned communities. Pulte Mortgage LLC is a nationwide lender offering Pulte customers a wide variety of loan products and superior service.

Websites: www.pulte.com; www.delwebb.com; www.divosta.com

SOURCE Pulte Homes, Inc.

http://www.pulte.com