Southern Nevada Home Builders executive celebrates 30 years at helm

Longtime Southern Nevada resident and home building industry leader Irene Porter is marking her 30th anniversary as executive director of the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association.

"I love working for the home builders. They're a marvelous group of people," Porter said. "The Southern Nevada Home Builders Association is a group of very special people committed to their industry and the community. Those who belong really do care. Their spirit and commitment are responsible for building the housing that becomes the homes for the residents of our community."

As executive director of SNHBA, Porter also serves as chief executive officer and manager of the Nevada State Home Builders Association. The NSHBA and its counterpart in Southern Nevada, the SNHBA, are both affiliates of the National Association of Home Builders based in Washington, D.C.

Founded in 1953 by 12 local home builders and incorporated with the state in 1954, the SNHBA ranks as the oldest and largest local trade organization representing the residential construction industry. It has more than 600 members who work in all facets of the home building industry.

Porter oversees the association's programs and efforts, which include lobbying the Nevada Legislature on behalf of the association and the home building industry; dealing with local, state and federal governmental entities on all issues affecting the industry; managing the Trade Contractor Quality Assurance and Green Building Partnership programs and planning special events.

"Irene has demonstrated over many years that she is a tireless advocate and champion for the rights of homeowners, homeownership opportunity, home builders and the residential construction industry as a whole," said Harry Shull, the 2007 president of the association and a co-founder of Celebrate Homes. "She has been a wise counselor and mentor to probably thousands of people over the past 30 years."

Porter joined SNHBA as executive director on Dec. 16, 1977 following a year as project manager for the American Nevada Corp.'s Green Valley master-planned community in Henderson.

"It was very exciting to work on the Green Valley project in those early days," Porter said. "It was one of the most innovative communities being developed at that time, in terms of urban planning and development, not just in metropolitan Las Vegas, but in the country."

Porter is a professional planner and longtime member of the American Planning Association. Also, she was the director of planning for the city of North Las Vegas from 1967 to 1976.

"I've had a passion for housing for a very long time," Porter said. "I understand the efforts and the sacrifices that people make to achieve the American dream of homeownership."

Over the past 30 years, Porter has shepherded the association and the industry through good and bad times.

"Every industry is subject to the business cycle. There are periods of high sales, stable sales and declining sales. Prices rise and fall."

Currently, housing sales and prices are coming down from the strongest boom period in the history of the industry.

"It is clear there is a weakness in our housing market right now, but as a community we should all start planning ahead to avoid a housing availability crisis," she said.

Porter is referring to the results a recent local housing industry study and report by Applied Analysis, commissioned by SNHBA, that forecasts a shortage in available housing as soon as 2009. Major Strip construction projects set to open in 2009 and 2010 will create a need for thousands of new jobs, which will unleash new demands for housing.

Meanwhile, Porter takes pride in the association's and industries' leadership role over the years on important community issues, such as school and infrastructure funding; environmental issues including dust control, water and energy efficiency and conservation; green building; construction quality, safety and education; and attempting to contain governmental costs to build a home.

"We did a study several years ago that indicated that for each increase of $1,000 in the average purchase price of a house results in 1,400 families no longer being able to afford a home in our community. That's an ongoing grave concern," Porter said.

For example, despite declining home prices this year, the median price of a new home in metropolitan Las Vegas has risen more than 80 percent to $298,056 as of October 2007 compared with the median price of $161,893 at the end of 2000, according to Home Builders Research Inc. of Las Vegas.

Porter has earned distinction as a top lobbyist in Nevada. Fellow lobbyists selected her Lobbyist of the Year at the Nevada Legislature in 1991, which led to her being named one of the first inductees into the Nevada Lobbyist Hall of Fame in 1997.

Porter has been around government activities since she was born in Fargo, N.D. Her father was a career serviceman whose travels took the family to many states and military bases abroad.

Porter's parents were transferred to Nellis Air Force Base in 1954, and after their retirement in 1959, the family lived in one of the original Pardee homes in the College Park neighborhood in North Las Vegas. She is a graduate of Rancho High School.

"It was a wonderful community of good neighbors," Porter said of the College Park neighborhood. Later, she and her husband of 46 years, Richard, would buy their first home in College Park, where they reared their daughter, Sherry.

"Unfortunately, we can't build that type of housing anymore under current zoning and design standards," Porter said of the many local governmental requirements that have been placed on single-family housing, such as mandatory square footage and two-car garages. "I believe it's a very viable form of housing for many people and we should be able to continue building communities like College Park."

Porter is active in many professional organizations. Her current memberships include the American Public Works Association, the American Society of Association Executives, the National Association of Home Builders Executive Officers Council and the American Planning Association and the Nature Conservancy.

She was the first woman in Nevada to be a registered Planner-In-Charge, a director of planning, a full-time lobbyist at the state Legislature and chief executive officer of a construction trade association.

Porter said she's not thinking about retiring yet.

"I'm thinking about getting us out of this slump, preparing for the 2009 Legislature, and, of course, my next cruise. But that's another story."