DALLAS, TEXAS -- April 23, 2003 -- A quality product, exceptional customer service and a strong U.S. housing market are enabling Centex Homes, one of the nation's largest homebuilders, to provide increasing support for The Nature Conservancy.

Since April 1999, Centex Homes donates $35 to The Nature Conservancy for each home it builds and sells. With its home sales up 80 percent since the start of the relationship, Centex Homes has contributed approximately $3 million to the Virginia-based nonprofit organization, which preserves plants, animals and natural communities by protecting lands and waters they need to survive.

With Centex Homes projecting continued growth in its national home sales and its commitment to The Nature Conservancy running through 2004, the result could be another $1.5 million contribution to help preserve habitats and natural resources in the United States, according to officers for the Dallas-based homebuilder.

Andy Hannigan, chairman and chief executive officer of Centex Homes, said, "Our business is building homes and neighborhoods that add to the quality of life. Our homebuyers appreciate that their purchase helps protect vital ecological resources. We're proud that as we've grown, we've been able to increasingly help the world feel at home through our commitment to responsible construction, exceptional customer service and habitat preservation."

Steve Volkers, director of corporate partnerships for The Nature Conservancy, said his organization has been able to perform valuable work specifically because of the homebuilder's generosity. "Centex Homes' donations have helped us acquire important habitats and increase public access to them so people can experience the natural wonders of our world, now and in the future," he said.

Centex Homes' contributions since April 2002 have gone directly to support Nature Conservancy work in Texas, Florida and Maryland, such as purchasing land and constructing learning centers and trails. These projects include:

• Helping protect 4,800 acres on the recently renamed Centex Homes Dolan Falls Preserve, home of Texas' largest continually flowing waterfall. It is situated about 150 miles west of San Antonio, Texas, near the Mexican border.
  
• Building an education center at Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines Preserve in the Florida Panhandle, the heart of one of the six most biologically diverse areas in the United States, and an interpretive walking trail at The Conservancy's Disney Wilderness Preserve, south of Orlando. Centex also funded an addition and renovation of the Tiger Creek Center on the Lake Wales Ridge in central Florida.
  
• Purchasing up to 3,500 acres along Nassawango Creek, a pristine habitat harboring rare plant and animal species only 80 miles from Washington, D.C., along the heart of Maryland's Eastern Shore.
  

Dallas-based Centex Homes is one of the nation's leading homebuilders, operating in more than 90 markets in 25 states. Its brands include entry-level Fox & Jacobs Homes and on-your-lot builder Wayne Homes. Centex Homes expects to deliver approximately 30,500 homes during its fiscal year, which ends March 31, 2004. The company is a subsidiary of Centex Corporation (NYSE: CTX), a FORTUNE 500® company.

Centex Corporation, through its other subsidiaries, ranks as one of the nation's largest non-bank-affiliated retail mortgage loan originators and general building contractors. The company also has operations in home services and investment real estate and owns a majority interest in a publicly held construction products company.

The Nature Conservancy is a leading international, nonprofit organization that preserves plants, animals and natural communities representing the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. To date, the Conservancy and its more than 1 million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 14.5 million acres in the United States. They have also helped preserve more than 83.5 million acres throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific.

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For more information:

Centex Homes: www.centexhomes.com

Neil Devroy, vice president, communications & public affairs

214-981-6154 or ndevroy@centexhomes.com

The Nature Conservancy: www.nature.org

Jordan Peavey, manager of media relations

703-841-5980 or jpeavey@tnc.org