2026 Florida Housing Solutions Summit

James Museum, St. Petersburg • April 22, 2026 8:00 AM - 7:30 PM

The Florida Housing Summit: Blueprint for Better Outcomes, hosted by the Florida Policy Project (FPP), is a premier event that brings together industry leaders, policymakers, experts, and stakeholders to discuss the pressing issues and solutions in housing today. The summit aims to address challenges, share innovative solutions, and pave the way for a brighter future for Floridians.

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2026 Agenda

April 22, 2026 The James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art St. Petersburg, Florida
 
 

Florida Housing Conference Agenda

Time Session Title Speakers
7:30 – 8:15 am Coffee, Connections & Conversation:
Registration & Networking Breakfast
8:15 – 8:30 am Welcome Senator Jeff Brandes, Florida Policy Project;
Al Ruechel (Emcee)
8:30 – 9:00 am Demographic Destiny:
Aging, Migration & Housing Demand		 Lesley Deutch, John Burns Research
9:00 – 9:30 am Housing Cycles or New Reality: What’s Structural in the 2026 Market Kevin Erdmann, Housing Policy Expert;
Ilana Blumsack, Americans for Prosperity
9:30 – 10:00 am Ground Truth: What Housing Data from Florida Cities Reveals Melody Wright, Huringa;
Jon Brooks, Momentum Realty
10:00 – 10:15 am Networking Break
10:15 – 11:00 am Size Matters:
Why Smaller Lot Sizes Matter		 Senator Jeff Brandes, Florida Policy Project;
Senator Stan McClain, Florida Senate;
Charbel Barakat, DR Horton;
Brita Wallace, Texans for Reasonable Solutions
11:00 – 11:30 am Boom, Bust, or Reset? Understanding the New Housing Economy Brad O’Connor, Florida Realtors;
Adrian Moore, Reason Foundation
11:30 am – 12:00 pm Florida’s Silver Bullets Deputy Secretary Justin Domer, Division of Community Development, Florida Commerce
12:00 – 12:30 pm Lunch Networking
12:30 – 1:15 pm The Supply Side: Homebuilders on Costs, Regulation, and Growth Brian LeBlanc, Homes by West Bay Tampa;
Charbel Barakat, DR Horton;
Ryan Benson, AVA Builders;
Chloe Firebaugh, M/I Homes of Tampa LLC
1:15 – 1:45 pm Lessons from the States: Housing Reforms That Deliver Ed Pinto, American Enterprise Institute;
Brita Wallace, Texans for Reasonable Solutions;
Jaimie Cavanaugh, Pacific Legal Foundation
1:45 – 2:00 pm Networking Break
2:00 – 2:20 pm Growth vs Pushback:
Can Florida Build and Keep Community Trust		 Andrew Gothard, YIMBY Action;
Mike Sutton, Habitat for Humanity Tampa Bay Gulfside;
Ari Bargil, Institute for Justice
2:20 – 2:40 pm Mobility Meets Housing: History & Back to the Future Chuck Martin, Futurist;
Rick Baker, St. Petersburg
2:40 – 3:00 pm The Short-Term Rental Factor: Housing and the Platform Economy Andy Gonzalez, Airbnb
3:00 – 3:45 pm Tallahassee Report: What Passed? What Didn’t? What is Next? Moderator:Jake Cremer, Barbas Cremer PLLC

Speakers:Representative Bill Conerly, Florida House;
Avery Bernstein, Advocate, Starter Homes Legislation;
Derick Tabertshofer, Americans For Prosperity;
Doug Wheeler, James Madison Institute
3:45 – 4:00 pm Closing Remarks:
From Data to Action		 Jeff Brandes (Key takeaways, What attendees should do next)
Al Ruechel

2026 Emcee

Emmy award winner, Al Ruechel will be the emcee for this year’s Housing Solutions Summit.  With over 40 years in reporting and anchored news, Al is known for his straightforward, non-partisan style.  His show, Political Connections which aired on Bay News 9 was valued by viewers and politicians alike.  Al and his wife reside in Pinellas County, Florida and have four children and 13 grandchildren.

2026 Speakers

Charbel J Barakat

Rick Baker is a business acquisition lawyer, a Law Firm President, the University of South Florida’s Vice President and President of The Edwards Group, a St. Petersburg-based development and entertainment company.  Presently he is an advisor and investor in companies involved in urban transformation, apartment development, and autonomous vehicle technology.  

From 2001 to 2010, he served as mayor of St. Petersburg. Under Mayor Baker’s leadership St. Petersburg experienced a renaissance unmatched in city history.  In 2008, Mayor Baker was named America’s Mayor/Public Official of the Year by Governing Magazine, and in 2011, was named “America’s greatest mayor of the decade” in Newsweek Magazine’s Daily Beast.

Baker holds a B.S., MBA, and a Juris Doctor from Florida State University. He has authored three books. He enjoys music, guitar, weight training, biking, history, public policy and counts as one of his favorite experiences playing and singing with the Marshall Tucker Band on four occasions.

Rick Baker

Rick Baker

Charbel J Barakat

Charbel J Barakat is Vice President and Counsel for Public Policy, with D.R. Horton, Inc., the nation's largest homebuilder, where he guides the company’s interactions with federal and state governments.  

Previously, for over 12 years, he served as Chief Counsel for the company’s Florida, Gulf Coast, and Mid-Atlantic Regions. During that time, he oversaw legal affairs for an area that included 9 states and 2,000+ employees.    

He was formerly associated with Akerman LLP in Miami and Milbank LLP in New York City, where he specialized in complex corporate, real estate, and project finance transactions.

Charbel currently serves on the University of South Florida Board of Trustees and the Florida Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission.

From July 2023 to February 2025, Charbel served as Vice Chair of the Board of Supervisors for the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (the special district governing Walt Disney World Resort).

He previously served on the board of directors of the Florida Development Finance Corporation, a state authorized issuer of industrial revenue bonds, and as Chair of the 2nd District Court of Appeal Judicial Nominating Commission. 

Since 2022, he has served as an advisor to the Tampa Hispanic Bar Association’s Board of Directors.

Charbel is a graduate of The Johns Hopkins University and New York University School of Law.

A native Floridian and proud son of Lebanese and Cuban immigrants, Charbel lives in Tampa with his wife, Daira, and their three children. 

Charbel

Charbel J Barakat

Ari Bargil

Ari Bargil is a senior attorney with the Institute for Justice. He joined IJ’s Florida Office in September of 2012, where he litigates constitutional cases protecting economic liberty, property rights, school choice, and free speech in both federal and state courts. Ari is co-lead of IJ’s Zoning Justice Project, a campaign to protect and promote the freedom to peacefully and productively use property. As part of that work, Ari frequently represents property owners battling aggressive zoning regulations and excessive fines in state and federal court nationwide. He has represented a small-business owner in Dallas, Texas, and a married couple in Wilmington, North Carolina, in challenges to highly controversial “amortization” ordinances—laws that unconstitutionally seek to eradicate already-existing legal land uses. Ari has also litigated in state and federal court challenging the constitutionality of catastrophic fines for trivial code-enforcement violations. In addition to maintaining an active litigation practice in all of IJ’s core areas, Ari also regularly testifies before state and local legislative bodies and committees on issues ranging from occupational licensing to property rights regulation. Ari has also spearheaded several successful legislative campaigns in Florida, including the effort to legalize the sale of 64-ounce “growlers” by craft breweries and the Florida Legislature’s passage of the Right to Garden Act—a reform which made it unlawful for local governments to ban residential vegetable gardens throughout the state. Ari’s work has been featured by USA Today, NPR, Fox News, Washington Post, Miami Herald, Dallas Morning News and other national and local publications. A native Floridian, Ari attended the Florida State University College of Law. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Florida in 2006. Most recently, Wheeler served as President of D. Wheeler Strategies, a full-service public affairs firm providing strategic consulting services in the areas of local, state, and federal government affairs, brand & business development, communications, and strategic planning. This is after serving in decades of successful leadership roles at the Florida Ports Council, Florida Chamber of Commerce, and State and Federal Governments among other positions. Wheeler serves as an Executive Committee and Board Member of the Economic Club of Florida; Board member of the Network of Entrepreneurs & Business Advocates; Is a graduate of the Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship – Small Business Executive Program; and a Leon County Honorary Sheriff’s Deputy. Doug is a graduate of The Florida State University with a degree in Political Science, with an emphasis in Political Communications, and currently lives in Tallahassee, Florida, with his wife, Ami, and their two children.

Ari Bargil

Ari Bargil

Ryan Benson

Ryan Benson is the co-owner of luxury home building firm, A Vernon Allen Builder, celebrating its 75th year building homes in southwest Florida. He was the Chairman of the Florida Home Builders Association in 2025, and continues to serve on the executive board. Benson also serves as Vice Chairman of the Florida Housing Finance Corporation, appointed to the volunteer position by Governor DeSantis in 2019 and confirmed by the State Senate in 2020, and reconfirmed in 2024. He served as Chairman of the Board in 2024.

ryan-benson

Ryan Benson

Avery Bernstein

​​Avery is a junior at NYU, double majoring in business and math. He is a Floridian from Gainesville who advocates pro-bono for housing and education legislation. Avery helped write the Florida Starter Homes Act (SB 948, HB 1143) and the Transit-Oriented Development Act (SB 1342, HB 1183).

Avery Berstein

Avery Bernstein

Ilana Blumsack

Ilana Blumsack is a Senior Housing Policy Analyst at Americans for Prosperity, where she focuses on zoning and land use reform and property tax reform. Prior to joining AFP, Ilana was a Research Associate at the Cato Institute, where she supported Chris Edwards and Scott Lincicome in work on fiscal and labor policy.

Ilana holds a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel and M.S. in Applied Economics at Johns Hopkins University.

ilana-b

Ilana Blumsack

Jon Brooks

Jon Brooks is a reformed investment banker, turned mega real estate agent, residential real estate investor, national speaker & coach, and co-founder of Momentum Realty. Since its inception in January 2020, Momentum Realty has attracted 270+ top producing real estate agents who have sold $3.5+ billion in sales and facilitated 8,500+ transactions in Florida and Georgia. Throughout his career, he has worked at the intersection of finance, investing, and thinking and doing things differently. Recently, Jon started media channels to share his thoughts on real estate with his Think Big, Question Everything substack reaching 27,000 subscribers and a fast growing audience on X and YouTube.

Jon Brooks

Jon Brooks

Jaimie Cavanaugh

Jaimie Cavanaugh is senior state policy counsel at Pacific Legal Foundation, where she partners with legislators across the country to reform and repeal laws that restrict property rights and individual freedom. She has established herself as a national expert on certificate of need laws — publishing reports and advocating extensively for healthcare facility deregulation — while also leading policy efforts to protect private property rights, expand economic liberty, and ease burdensome professional licensing requirements. Her work spans multiple states and issue areas, combining deep legislative experience with a litigation background that has produced real legal victories for individuals and businesses.

Jaimie Cavanaugh

Jaimie Cavanaugh

Jake Cremer

Jake Cremer is Managing Partner of Barbas Cremer. The practice focuses on complex projects requiring a combination of land use entitlements, environmental permitting, and property rights protection working with developers, investors, and landowners who work with the government on land development issues.

Jake has been fortunate to work on some of Florida’s most transformative projects, including the Live Local Act—one of the country’s boldest pro-housing policies. Currently, he’s lead counsel for several major redevelopment initiatives in Tampa. Equally, he’s passionate about helping agricultural landowners unlock alternative streams through mitigation banking and conservation easements.

He is a sixth-generation Floridian who grew up working in my family’s timber operations in Palatka, but it’s his practice that has taken me from the hammocks and wetlands of Old Florida, to local planning boards across the state, to joining a team for a case on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court. I’ve had the privilege of drafting legislation that became Florida law and of working in state government in Tallahassee. Each project teaches me something new, and I love the variety—no two days are the same in land development law.

jake-cremer

Jake Cremer

Representative Bill Conerly

Representative Bill Conerly, a Florida native, enlisted in the U.S. Navy after high school, serving in the Indian Ocean, Red Sea, and Persian Gulf. He used the technical skills acquired in his service to work full-time while earning his Bachelor of Science in Agricultural and Biological Engineering from the University of Florida in 1997. His early work experience included a job as a robotics technician on the Jaws ride at Universal Studios.1

By 2001, Bill had earned his Professional Engineer (PE) license in Civil Engineering with a focus on Water Resources. Over his 29-year career in Southwest Florida, he has managed a wide variety of projects, including Healthcare, Affordable & Senior Housing, Commercial & Office, Roadway, and Utility.1

A 26-year resident of Manatee County, Bill has served on numerous voluntary boards, such as the Planning Commission and the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee. He was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2024, where he wanted to use his engineering skills to, "make Southwest Florida a better place." His legislative priorities are infrastructure (transportation, potable water, wastewater, and energy), housing affordability, and stormwater & flood resiliency.

Representative Bill Conerly

Representative Bill Conerly

Lesley Deutch

Lesley Deutch is a Managing Principal at John Burns Research and Consulting, an independent housing research and advisory firm that helps companies make better strategic decisions across the housing ecosystem. Based in Florida, Lesley has more than 30 years of experience advising executives in the real estate, finance, and building products industries. Lesley works across sectors including for-sale housing, affordable housing, apartments, high-rise and urban development, single-family rental, and commercial real estate, and is a recognized industry leader and frequent speaker at national and local events.

leslie D

Lesley Deutch

Justin Domer

Justin Domer
Deputy Secretary, Division of Community Development
FloridaCommerce

Justin Domer serves as the Deputy Secretary for the Division of Community Development at FloridaCommerce, where he leads strategic initiatives to strengthen communities and support sustainable economic growth across Florida.

Prior to this role, he held several key leadership positions within FloridaCommerce, including Interim Assistant Deputy Secretary for the Division of Community Development and Director of the Office of Long-Term Resiliency, where he oversaw critical efforts focused on disaster recovery, infrastructure investment and long-term community resilience. Before Joining FloridaCommerce, Justin served as Deputy Director of External Relations at the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, where he managed stakeholder engagements and intergovernmental affairs. He also served at the federal level as Chief of Staff of the Rural Housing Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

He also serves as a board member for the Florida Housing Finance Corporation, supporting efforts to expand access to affordable housing throughout the state.

Justin-Domer

Justin Domer

Kevin Erdmann

Kevin Erdmann is the author of “Shut Out: How a Housing Shortage Caused the Great Recession and Crippled Our Economy” and “Building from the Ground Up: Reclaiming the American Housing Boom.” Also, he has published numerous studies and briefs in his role as a senior affiliated scholar with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University detailing how obstructions to housing supply and homeowner financing have created a housing crisis. He covers these ideas and the current marketplace at his Substack newsletter, The Erdmann Housing Tracker. His work has appeared on C-Span, Bloomberg’s “Odd Lots” podcast, in the Wall Street Journal, the National Review, Politico, Barron’s, USA Today, US News, and others.

kevin-erdmann

Kevin Erdmann

Chloe Firebaugh

Chloe Firebaugh is Vice President of Land Acquisitions for M/I Homes of Tampa, LLC and has more than 20 years of experience in the residential homebuilding industry. She also serves as the Chair of the Pinellas County Housing Authority. Chloe is skilled in acquisitions, land planning, development, and community management. She is a graduate of both the University of Florida and the University of South Florida.

Chloe-Firebaugh

Chloe Firebaugh

Andy Gonzalez

Andy Gonzalez currently serves as Policy Lead, Southeast & Gulf for Airbnb. In his role, Andy is responsible for developing and executing a fully integrated state and local government relations plan in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana. 

Prior to joining Airbnb, Andy served as VP of Public Policy for Florida Realtors. Previously, Andy served as the Director of Political Development at the Florida Chamber of Commerce and Legislative & Political Affairs Manager for the League of Southeastern Credit Unions. 

Andy was born and raised in Miami. He graduated from Florida State University with a B.S. in Political Science and a M.S. in Applied American Politics and Policy. He resides in Tallahassee with his wife and two children.

Andy Gonzalez

Andy Gonzalez

Andrew Gothard

Andrew Gothard is Chief of Staff for Yes In My Back Yard and YIMBY Action. In this role, he coordinates pro-housing organizing, marketing, fundraising, and legal enforcement activities across 80+ chapters in 32 states, including four Florida chapters in Tampa, Orlando, Gainesville, and Miami. Andrew currently lives in Clermont, FL and comes from a background in Florida higher education, including higher education labor leadership and policy.

Andrew

Andrew Gothard

Brian LeBlanc

Brian LeBlanc joined Homes by WestBay in 2024, with a focus on land acquisition and expansion into new business lines such as rental and infill housing strategies. He is the Division Manager for Homes by WestBay's City Homes division and serves as the Vice President of Land Acquisition & Multifamily/Build-to-rent (BTR). Prior to joining WestBay, Brian spent three years as a multifamily developer and previously spent most of his professional career in real estate private equity in New York City from 2006-2021 at Morgan Stanley, Westbrook Partners, AllianceBernstein and a high-net-worth family office.

Brian attended the Stern School of Business at New York University. Born and raised in the Boston area, Brian currently lives in South Tampa with his wife and two children. He is actively involved in many local real estate and community organizations including the Urban Land Institute (ULI), Tampa Bay Builders Association (TBBA), Real Estate Investment Council (REIC), Metropolitan Ministries, Radiant Church and the Bayshore Christian School, among many others.

Brian-LeBlanc

Brian LeBlanc

Chuck Martin

Chuck Martin is a New York Times Business Bestselling author, futurist, keynote speaker and columnist. Martin has been a thought leader in emerging digital technologies for more than three decades. He is considered one of the foremost emerging technology experts in the world and his latest book is titled “Flying Vehicles: The Emergence of Personal Air Travel, Flying Cars, and Air Taxis." His previous book was "Digital Transformation 3.0: The New Business-to-Consumer Connections of The Internet of Things."  He hosts a worldwide podcast titled “The Voices of the Internet of Things with Chuck Martin,” where he converses with top executives who are leaders in emerging technology. He is the author of Net Future, Mobile Influence: The New Power of the Consumer, The Third Screen and eight other business books. Martin, a corporate advisor and speaker internationally, is the former Editorial Director AI & IoT at Informa, and previously Editor of the MediaPost AI & IoT Daily, where he wrote the well-read daily column “Connected Thinking” for the AI & IoT Daily. He has been named #1 in Internet of Things Top 10 Influencers by IT Chronicles, the Top 10 of "100 Top IoT Influencers" by Rise Global, one of the "Top 50 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers of Internet of Things 2025" by Thinkers 360, in the "Top 100 IoT Influencers" by Postscapes and Top 8 IoT Influencers to Watch by Insight.tech. He also is a judge of the annual, highly prestigious CES Innovation Awards.

chuck Martin

Chuck Martin

Senator Stan McClain

He was elected to the Florida Senate in 2024. He is the Chair of the Community Affairs Committee and serves on 8 other committees.  Prior to the Florida Senate, McClain served in the Florida House of Representatives for 8 years. McClain began his time in public service on the Marion County Board of County Commissioners from 2004-2016, serving as Chairman of the Board three times. He has lived in Marion County for over 30 years and is a state certified residential building contractor.  He and his wife live in Summerfield and enjoy spending time with their family, fishing, and exploring “Old Florida.”

Stan McClain

Senator Stan McClain

Adrian Moore

Adrian Moore, Ph.D., lives in Sarasota and is vice president of policy at Reason Foundation. Moore, who has testified before Congress and state legislatures countless times, and regularly advises federal, state and local officials on ways to improve policy outcomes and reduce costs.
Dr. Moore is author of several books, most recently Megacity Mobility: Integrated Urban Transportation Development and Management (2022) as well as many academic journal articles and policy reports on a wide range of policy topics. He has served on several government commissions at local, state and federal levels. He currently writes a monthly column for the Sarasota Observer.
Prior to joining Reason, Moore served 10 years in the Army on active duty and reserves. As an noncommissioned officer he was accepted to Officers Candidate School and commissioned as an Infantry officer. He served in posts in the United States and Germany and left the military as a Captain after commanding a Heavy Material Supply company. He earned a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Irvine. He holds a Master's in Economics from the University of California, Irvine and a Master's in History from California State University, Chico.

Adrian-Moore

Adrian Moore

Brad O’Connor

CEO

Brad O’Connor, Ph.D. is the Chief Economist for Florida Realtors, the state’s largest trade association with about 238,000 members. As the head of the research department at Florida Realtors, he oversees the production of the association’s widely-cited monthly housing market statistics, as well as numerous other economic and statistical research projects. His commentary on Florida’s real estate markets regularly appears in major daily newspapers around the state and has been featured in several national publications, including Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.

Brad O'connor

Brad O’Connor

Ed Pinto

Ed Pinto is the co-founder and co-director of AEI Housing Center. The Housing Center focuses on state and local land use policy flexibilities that can address both supply and affordability challenges and has published its Playbooks for Housing and Economic Growth covering Florida and hundreds of metros, counties, and cities.

Ed-Pinto

Ed Pinto

Mike Sutton

Mike Sutton is the President and CEO of Habitat for Humanity Tampa Bay Gulfside, a role he has held since March 2014. Under his leadership, the $41M nonprofit has become one of the top Habitat affiliates in the U.S., focusing on building and purchasing affordable housing in Pinellas, West Pasco, and Hernando Counties. With over 20 years of experience in the nonprofit sector, Mike is a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) and has held leadership positions at Big Brothers Big Sisters, the YMCA, and Habitat for Humanity in Texas. He earned a BA from the University of South Florida and completed his Certificate in Fundraising Management at Indiana University. Mike has been recognized on the Tampa Bay Business Journal’s Power100 list for five years and received several awards, including the 2023 Philanthropist of the Year and the 2024 Nonprofit CEO of the Year. He is involved with the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation and serves on several boards, including the Board of Trustees for HCA Florida Largo Hospital, the CEO Council of Tampa Bay, and the Habitat for Humanity State Association of Florida.

mike-sutton

Mike Sutton

Brita Wallace

Brita Wallace serves as General Counsel for Texans for Reasonable Solutions, where she supports the organization’s mission to reduce regulatory barriers and expand housing opportunities across Texas. Sheis also a land use attorney at McLean & Howard and the founder of Digs, her own infill building and development company.

Brita has longstanding experience in housing policy advocacy, including volunteer service as president of the Austin Infill Coalition, a nonprofit focused on advancing policies that support infill development and more housing choices. She has also contributed her time to local civic and nonprofit efforts, serving on the Austin Habitat for Humanity Advocacy Committee, the City of Austin Preservation Plan Working Group, the ULI Code Rewrite Workgroup, and the City of Austin Design Commission. She began her legal career in public service as the protective order attorney for the Williamson County Attorney’s Office, representing survivors of domestic violence.

A graduate of the University of Texas School of Law, Brita combines her background in public service, home building, and housing advocacy to help shape policies that make it possible to build more homes in Texas communities.

brita-wallace

Brita Wallace

Doug Wheeler

Doug Wheeler is Director of the George Gibbs Center for Economic Prosperity at The James Madison Institute. In this role, he works with a wide variety of business leaders, policymakers, researchers, and free-market partners & stakeholders to promote market-based policies grounded in the principles of limited government, free-market capitalism, and individual freedoms. Most recently, Wheeler served as President of D. Wheeler Strategies, a full-service public affairs firm providing strategic consulting services in the areas of local, state, and federal government affairs, brand & business development, communications, and strategic planning. This is after serving in decades of successful leadership roles at the Florida Ports Council, Florida Chamber of Commerce, and State and Federal Governments among other positions. Wheeler serves as an Executive Committee and Board Member of the Economic Club of Florida; Board member of the Network of Entrepreneurs & Business Advocates; Is a graduate of the Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship – Small Business Executive Program; and a Leon County Honorary Sheriff’s Deputy. Doug is a graduate of The Florida State University with a degree in Political Science, with an emphasis in Political Communications, and currently lives in Tallahassee, Florida, with his wife, Ami, and their two children.

Doug-Wheeler

Doug Wheeler

Melody Wright

Melody is a writer, strategist, and technologist. A 24-year BFSI veteran, she was recently named as one of Mortgage Women Magazine’s Women of Technology and is a contributing writer to multiple publications. Her 2023 article in HousingWire entitled “Debunking the Housing Inventory Myth,” created controversy and sparked debate in the industry and amongst the investor community as housing analysts attributed low sales to inventory issues. Wright presciently argued that the depressed housing market was due to affordability issues and changing trends in how people buy and sell homes. Melody Wright began her mortgage career at GMAC ResCap (RFC) in 2006 and helped manage the historic ResCap bankruptcy. After leaving ResCap and before joining the FinTech revolution, she focused on operational effectiveness at multiple large, nonbank mortgage companies. Melody launched her own strategy and technology company in 2022, Huringa, which assists the investor and industry community with navigating the ever-changing macroeconomic landscape utilizing market data and comprehensive, integrated technology solutions.

melody-wright

Melody Wright

2026 SPONSORS

Thank you to our generous 2026 Florida Housing Summit sponsors that allow us to host this insightful and important day. Sponsorships are still available. More information can be found here.

GOLD SPONSOR

SILVER SPONSOR

Florida Home Builder Association
Florida Trend
logo reason foundation
Tibbetts Lumbar
John Burns
Grimes Galvano
JMI
Pinellas County Housing Authority
Barbas Cremer

COFFEE SPONSOR

COFFEE SPONSOR

LUNCH SPONSOR

LUNCH SPONSOR

Table Sponsors

Habitat Gulfside
Carlton Fields
LOGO RSA

2024 FHS Video

Check out the actions from the first ever Florida Housing Summit. 

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