SNHBA president announces new column

As the president of the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association, I am pleased to launch this new column in the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s real estate section.

The association plans to give readers insightful information about the many aspects of the homebuilding and homebuying process. We’re in a unique position to deliver that information. For nearly 60 years, we’ve played a major role as an advocate for the American dream of homeownership in metropolitan Las Vegas.

Also, the homebuilding industry is a major force in the local economy. Every new home constructed leads to 3.19 permanent jobs in Nevada. For a $220,000 home, this generates $401,790 in total economic activity in the state, according to a study earlier this year by the National Association of Home Builders’ Economics Department.

SNHBA is an award-winning affiliate of the National Association of Home Builders, based in Washington, D.C. We are actively involved with numerous issues, ranging from cost control to environmental protection that impact the homebuilding industry, homebuyers and homeowners. That involvement includes lobbying and advocating on the local, state, regional and federal levels. We have a long history of working toward responsible and reasonable solutions that benefit the industry, our buyers and the community.

Working in cooperation with other organizations and governmental entities, we’ve tackled important issues of mutual concern such as fair taxation, funding for public infrastructure, transportation and schools; environmental mitigation requirements, including the multispecies habitat conservation plan and the storm water management plan; impact fees and governmental enterprise funds.

In particular, we’ve partnered with other trade groups to work on solutions for issues ranging from dust control, mechanics lien law, right-to-repair in construction dispute cases, revisions and modernizations of industry codes and standards and developing education programs to benefit our members.

We joined with the Southern Nevada Water Authority to create the Water Smart Home program, which promotes water efficiency by requiring homes built through the program to include water-smart landscaping and water-efficient appliances. More than 9,000 local homes have been built to program requirements since 2004.

With industry partners, we established the Southern Nevada Green Building Partnership and the Trade Contractor Quality Assurance programs, which raised the bar on homebuilding in our community and serve as models for programs in other communities.

The association has nearly 300 members who hail from all professions in the industry, from builders, Realtors and mortgage lenders to marketing consultants, trade contractors and government representatives.

Our members are focused on the association’s mission, which is to:

■ Promote community attitudes that will ensure the viability and success of the homebuilding industry.

■ Combine individual talents and resources to provide leadership addressing challenges affecting our industry.

■ Implement programs to advance membership, education and involvement in our association.

Direct questions about new homes to monica@snhba.com. We will try to answer as many as we can given space and time limitations and constraints. For more information about SNHBA, visit www.snhba.com. This column will be published bimonthly.