The housing market is like a freight train barreling down the tracks with no signs of stopping or even slowing down as it approaches the station.

According to Josh McFall, CEO of the Huntsville Area Association of Realtors, there is no better time to list a home, but that does not mean our region is not facing challenges that need to be recognized and overcome.

In the spirit of community partnerships, HAAR is teaming with the Huntsville Madison County Builders Association and a local bank to host the “North Alabama Housing Solutions Summit: Attainability and Availability for Our Growing Economy.”

Held at the Jackson Center in Cummings Research Park on Sept. 28, the summit will open with a breakfast at 8 a.m. and runs to 11 a.m.

“We will be bringing in some national speakers to tackle the topic around availability and attainability of housing and discuss what we can do collectively as a community,” said McFall. “While this event encompasses quite a large title, our hopes for it are even bigger.

“We not only want to inform community leaders about challenges to the market, but we want to include action steps on what can be our primary focus to relieve some of the pressures. We have had discussions already with a lot of leaders about workforce housing specifically, so we are going to tackle those kinds of topics.”

McFall said solutions come through collaboration.

“We want to make clear, what it is we have to do to move forward to solve the problem while we provide our attendees with real action items, they can take with them when they leave the event,” he said.

“It is also important everyone knows their role, whether it is economic development, workforce development, housing in general, and availability of housing. All have to be part of that conversation.”

Registration for the summit opens this week at https://haar.realtor.