SNHBA extends president’s term to two years

The Southern Nevada Home Builders Association has extended the term of its current president, Carlos Zuluaga, for one more year as the Nevada Legislature kicks off its 2025 session.

Normally, KB Home Division President Aaron Hirschi would take over the role in what are one-year terms, but the builder association thought it was best for the presidents to use the knowledge and contacts with lawmakers during their first year to guide them into the legislative session. Hirschi is scheduled to assume the role in 2026 and 2027

Zuluaga, vice president of operations for Tri Pointe Homes, took over as board president in 2024 as builders posted their second-best sales year since the pandemic, even though interest rates remained elevated most of the year and approached 7 percent again as the year ended.

“There was a thought it would make sense to have the president stand over two years so that the person could be at the presidency during a legislative year and non-legislative year,” Zuluaga said. “It makes a lot of sense because I was just starting to figure out the role, and it’s about over. It makes sense to do two years because you have all of that experience and not just trying to figure out what’s going on for the first time.”

Zuluaga said that he has met several lawmakers and elected officials over the past year and that it would have been a shame to have those relationships established “go to waste if I’m not involved in the legislative session.”

The 2025 SNHBA agenda for the session is always about looking for bills that will impact the industry from a policy or monetary standpoint, Zuluaga said.

Making homes attainable is a big push this year, so their lobbying teams are well aware of what’s important, and they will keep the board up to date on everything, Zuluaga said. There is no primary legislation that the SNHBA is pushing in 2025.

“We’re more on defense mode because we still want to make sure we’re able to build homes and make them attainable for our customers,” Zuluaga said. “At the end of the day, that’s what we do. We build homes for people, and we want to provide that service and make them attainable for as many people as possible.”

The biggest issue facing the building industry is more a focus of Congress and the federal government than it is the Nevada Legislature — a lack of land, Zuluaga said. The SNHBA and other organizations have been lobbying Congress to make more federal land available for development in Southern Nevada.

“They are not being quick to release land to be able to build homes,” Zuluaga said. “A shortage of land is the start of everything that could go wrong for our industry and prospective buyers. You have to have land to build it, and one of the most important issues we’re going to be facing in 2025.”

The incoming Trump administration has signaled it’s supportive of making more federal land available.

“The importance of this has not changed no matter who’s in office,” Zuluaga said as builders nationwide have lobbied for the making more land available. “We’re going to pursue it as hard as we have in years past.”

Even if land is made available, it has to be at a price where builders can build attainable homes, Zuluaga said.

Coming off a strong year in sales, the industry in Las Vegas had what Zuluaga called a “great year” as most builders accomplished their goals for the year.

Meanwhile, interest rates continue to be a “stopping point for people” when they’re making a decision to buy or not.

“Things may be stabilized in the world in the eyes of the buyer, and I’m looking forward to that being the same in 2025,” Zuluaga said.

Even though interest rates remain elevated, Zuluaga said he’s not surprised sales hit their second-highest level since the pandemic because people are moving to Southern Nevada and need homes. Others are outgrowing their homes because they have larger families.

“At that point, the interest rate was the interest rate and they were starting to see it was more normal than what they first thought,” Zuluaga said.

It has helped that builders have the ability to lower the cost of homes such as buying down interest rates and helping with closing costs, Zuluaga said.

Where interest rates will be in 2025 continued to be “the million-dollar question” and impossible to predict.

He said the industry would love to see the Federal Reserve continue to cut its funds rates even more than planned, but the industry is prepared to deal with whatever comes. He can’t predict what sales will look like in 2025 without a big reduction in mortgage rates.

“I can’t speak for every builder or my own company, but we all have a tool bag with different types of tools to help people make it not just about the interest rate,” Zuluaga said.

The building industry has overcome supply chain issues that hampered it coming out of the pandemic and continues to monitor what’s happening with strikes and other issues that might hinder the flow of supplies, Zuluaga said.

“We all have pretty fresh scars from the COVID era, and dealing with those shortages was a nightmare,” Zuluaga said. “We’re super aware of what’s out there and not out there, and we prepare for it.”

Material costs, especially lumber, continue to rise with labor expenses, Zuluaga said. There continues to be a concern about an aging builder workforce nearing retirement and how that can be dealt with over the next five to 10 years.

“If not, we’re going to see a lot of experience go out the door, and there’s not going to be a lot of folks in line to backfill that,” Zuluaga said.

As for what keeps him up at night, Zuluaga said it’s not 2025 or the following year but the long-term outlook over the next six to eight years if more land doesn’t become available for building.

“That can get a little scary,” Zuluaga said. “The homebuilding industry provides 75,000 to 80,000 jobs in the valley, and it will be devastating to maintain it without a proper supply of land. A year ago, we were talking about eight years of supply at the current rate we’re burning through it.”

As for what excites him the most, Zuluaga said he’s looking forward to the legislative session because he has learned a lot in 2024 and looks forward to learning more.

Zuluaga said SNHBA CEO Tina Frias is working with a company to create a strategic plan looking to revamp the organization.

There’s nothing wrong, Zuluaga said, but there’s always room for improvement, and there will be polling of members and outside entities on how to be better.

“The SNHBA has always been a very successful professional association that sets the standards, but I think with this strategic plan we’re looking to take it to the next level,” Zuluaga said. “We want to be a better partner to the community and the public to see homebuilders as people who live in this community and care about it and want to do the right thing for the community. We’re just not here to build and be in their way. Keep an eye on the homebuilders. There’s a lot of good stuff coming over the next two years with Tina’s leadership.”

Zuluaga said Frias has been fantastic in her role she started last spring. When they hired her in March, he said they knew there would be a “tough learning curve” coming from a government job at Harry Reid International Airport, but in eight months, “she has taken this thing and made it her own.”

“She’s already overdelivering on what we expected,” Zuluaga said. “We thought this would be a year where she’s trying to figure out what’s going on and getting her bearings. She’s in it, and she’s fantastic.”