diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/dev-cmd/audit.rb b/Library/Homebrew/dev-cmd/audit.rb
index e83fb2bd07..93431c9514 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/dev-cmd/audit.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/dev-cmd/audit.rb
@@ -569,11 +569,10 @@ class FormulaAuditor
     end
 
     return unless @online
-    begin
-      nostdout { curl "--connect-timeout", "15", "-o", "/dev/null", homepage }
-    rescue ErrorDuringExecution
-      problem "The homepage is not reachable (curl exit code #{$?.exitstatus})"
-    end
+    status_code, = curl_output "--connect-timeout", "15", "--output", "/dev/null", "--range", "0-0",
+                               "--write-out", "%{http_code}", homepage
+    return if status_code.start_with? "20"
+    problem "The homepage #{homepage} is not reachable (HTTP status code #{status_code})"
   end
 
   def audit_bottle_spec
diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/test/audit_test.rb b/Library/Homebrew/test/audit_test.rb
index 2725f906e3..dace4dc2ba 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/test/audit_test.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/test/audit_test.rb
@@ -429,8 +429,8 @@ class FormulaAuditorTests < Homebrew::TestCase
 
     fa.audit_homepage
     assert_equal ["The homepage should start with http or https " \
-      "(URL is #{fa.formula.homepage}).", "The homepage is not reachable " \
-      "(curl exit code #{$?.exitstatus})"], fa.problems
+      "(URL is #{fa.formula.homepage}).", "The homepage #{fa.formula.homepage} is not reachable " \
+      "(HTTP status code 000)"], fa.problems
 
     formula_homepages = {
       "bar" => "http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/bar",