Camas home builder Matthew Clarkson holds no grand illusions about a rapid recovery from recession for his industry as he assumes the top leadership job with Washington's biggest home builders group.

The 11,500-member Building Industry Association of Washington will continue to focus on legislation and educational programs that support home builders, said Clarkson, 47, co-owner of Soaring Eagle Homes. He was installed this month as 2010 president of the statewide association. Clarkson has served the state group as an officer and committee member since 2005. Before that, he was president of the Building Industry Association of Clark County in 2003.

We've all quit trying to predict" the comeback, Clarkson said.

The group will, however, try to lower the cost of doing business for its survivors. It started with a message to state Department of Labor & Industry leaders that a proposed 7.6 percent increase in workers' compensation insurance premiums is too high.

It would be the largest increase in five years, Clarkson said. He added that the state rates are already the second-highest in the nation.

"You have to give businesses a cost-effective solution," he said.

Especially since builders statewide are still reeling from a 52.2 percent drop in housing starts this year. From January through August, 8,870 permits were issued to build single-family houses in Washington, down from 18,574 permits issued in the same period in 2008, according to the state association.

A local home builder since 1995, Clarkson experienced the downturn firsthand.

Since its founding, Soaring Eagle has built an average of eight or nine new houses per year. That changed dramatically in 2008, Clarkson said. His company's sales barely broke even as the value of its custom-built homes plummeted last year.

"I would have been better off if I hadn't built anything," Clarkson said.

In Clark County, builders were issued 323 total permits to build houses from January through October, down 41.6 percent from the same period in 2008. Home building activity has dropped 82.4 percent from the same 10-month period in 2005, when the county handed out 1,831 permits.

Clarkson said the downturn has created a sense of a unity among builders, despite competition for the few jobs that remain.

"There's a feeling that we're all in this together. It's been a decimating experience," he said.

Membership in the state association has declined by about 1,000 members, down from last year's total of 12,500. In Clark County, membership has dropped from more than 936 members to about 897 members this year.

The state association is still the largest trade group in Washington, said Erin Shannon, a home builders spokeswoman.

Clarkson said the group's educational programs will look to the future, with a focus on sustainable building practices and energy efficient design.

"Green building is huge right now. We need to continue to ask, 'how do you build for the market,'" he said.