Housing

Housing and You

Artificial intelligence is already transforming the housing and real estate sectors, from both the buyer's, seller's, and agency's perspectives. For the prospective homeowner, machine learning has made finding the right house a faster and easier process. By analyzing search patterns, AI algorithms are getting better at suggestions more desirable properties. As we see in other industries, virtual assistants or chatbots are being enlisted by real estate agencies and aggregators to help customers find what they're looking for.

How to Increase the Black Homeownership Rate

Wall Street Journal | Dec 16, 2020

While the overall U.S. homeownership rate has risen in recent years, the rate among Black households remains low. Black families have a much lower median net worth compared to white families, and homeownership is one of the reasons why. Some companies are offering AI-assisted property valuations instead of in-person appraisals. But these valuations have the same biases that appraisers and lenders and real-estate agents have, too, since the algorithms tend to be written by people with unconscious bias. "The way you get past what really amounts to a distrust of Black people is to invest in Black people," says Andre M. Perry, a fellow at the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program.

Private equity firm ASG acquires AI-powered startup Homebot

Housing Wire | Jun 26, 2020

A new AI-powered startup called Homebot aims to help lenders increase their business by bridging the gaps between lenders and their clients. Homebot is already serving thousands of homeowners with their data and communication tool that all parties involve use: homeowner, mortgage lender, and real estate agent.

A.I. Could Be the New Play to Increase Minority Homeownership

Forbes | Dec 30, 2019

AI is being used to reduce discrimination against certain minority groups who are applying for home loans. A recent study found that while in-person mortgage lenders tend to reject minority applicants at a rate 6% higher than non-minority applicants with similar backgrounds, AI algorithms that handle online applications approved minority and non-minority applicants at the same rate. Algorithms like this one can go a long way towards closing the wealth gap.

Housing discrimination goes high tech

Curbed | Dec 17, 2019

When assessing tenant application data, AI algorithms may reject applicants based on unintended connections between data sets; living in a low-income neighborhood may be correlated with an inability to pay rent, for instance. While some algorithms make finding a home easier, they come with a slew of unconscious biases that tends to favor certain demographics over others in evaluating tenants and potential owners.AI bias continues to be a significant threat to communities of color, and the real estate industry is no exception.