Zillow, in collaboration with United Negro College Fund, Black Tech Ventures, and Amplify 4 Good, will host the HBCU Housing Hackathon to provide HBCU students with valuable real-world experience and career development through workshops, hands-on enrichment, mentorship and teamwork.
The hackathon is open to students who have advanced coding experience as well as those with little or none. Teams can have as many as four members, and although registration is open to HBCU students in any degree program, each team must have at least one member enrolled in a computer science, computer engineering or related program.
Participants will be required to develop and pitch a creative and impactful tech solution that aligns with Zillow’s mission to help consumers overcome obstacles in their journey to find a home. The first-place team will receive a $20,000 cash award, split among its members, and Zillow will donate $25,000 to its school’s computer science program. Second- and third-place teams will receive $12,000 and $6,000 cash awards, respectively. Students from the top three teams also will receive new laptops, textbook gift cards and AfroTech World 2021 conference tickets. All eligible hackathon participants interested in a role at Zillow will have an opportunity to interview for an internship.
Zillow was founded in 2006 to bring transparency to the real estate industry and empower those searching for a home with information and data to help make more informed decisions. With groundbreaking tools like the Zestimate, Zillow transformed the marketplace and has not stopped innovating to give home shoppers a simple, seamless and enjoyable experience.
Now is your chance to use “tech for good” to develop and pitch an innovative solution to a problem faced by consumers, or a new product or service that would make it easier for them to find a home they love.
When planning your hackathon project, we encourage you to be creative when designing it. We are looking for solutions that are also feasible and show technical aptitude. You can focus on one of the themes below or come up with your own!
Buying, selling and renting a home can be a complicated and confusing process. Zillow has launched products like the Zestimate, Zillow 3D Home tours and Zillow Offers to simplify and streamline various real estate transactions, but there is more that can be done.
Millennials and Generation Z have a deep understanding of how technology can transform the way we work and live. A recent Zillow survey found that more young people want digital home shopping tools and are comfortable making big purchases online, leading a shift toward a digital-first real estate transaction. Millennials represent the largest generation of home buyers, and will drive housing trends and demand for years to come.
The survey also found that nearly 40% of millennials (39%) said they would be comfortable buying a home online, and significantly more (59%) said they would be at least somewhat comfortable making an offer on a home after taking a virtual tour but not touring it in person. The survey also showed more than one in three (36%) Gen Zers said they would be comfortable buying a home online, compared to 7% of baby boomers and 19% of Gen Xers. This data signals the coming sea change in how people will likely shop for and buy homes in the not-so-distant future.
What next-generation real estate tool can your team build for millennial or Gen Z home shoppers or homeowners?
The U.S. was facing a crisis-level housing affordability issue, especially for low-income households, even before the coronavirus pandemic. In 2018, a quarter of renter households — 10.9 million — were spending more than half of their income on rent. When the pandemic hit, its impacts were felt more strongly by households with lower incomes, by renters and by people of color.
Housing is considered a burden on a household when it costs more than 30% of the household’s income, leaving less money available for groceries, transportation, childcare and bills. Beyond that, communities where people spend more than 32% of their income on rent can expect a more rapid increase in homelessness. Recent Zillow research shows U.S. rents as a share of renters’ income is forecast to rise above the 30% housing burden threshold by December, and is far higher in some metros where income gains are falling behind rent growth.
In 2019, 37.1 million households were “housing cost burdened,” spending 30% or more of their income on housing, representing 30.2% of all households nationwide. One in seven households — 17.6 million in total — were “severely cost burdened,” spending half or more of their income on housing.
How can data be used to provide early warnings of housing vulnerability, both for individuals and community groups, to avoid evictions and homelessness?
Homeownership is one of the fastest and more reliable ways to grow wealth, especially for communities of color, and research shows that Black mortgage applicants are denied by lenders at a rate 80% higher than that of white applicants.
The localization of mortgage denials limits mobility and opportunity for applicants, and leads to more sacrifices made on the journey to homeownership. This can limit their ability to move to a preferred neighborhood, lack of access to amenities and services, and less opportunity to build wealth as a result of homeownership.
There is a direct correlation between credit security — having a strong credit history and structural access to credit offerings — and higher homeownership rates. But achieving home ownership is incredibly credit-dependent — those with good or great credit histories can access cheaper financing, while those with marginal, poor or non-existent credit are left to pay more for the same services — or left behind altogether.
About 26 million Americans are considered “credit invisible,” with no credit history. Roughly one in ten U.S. adults will struggle to access credit simply because they’ve never accessed it before. And a disproportionately high share of these 26 million Americans are Black or Latinx.
Currently, credit history (or lack thereof) is the number one reason home mortgage applications are denied to Black applicants, so changes to the system could significantly open up homeownership for more Americans.
How can technology be used to make the mortgage process more equitable?
You must be 18 years of age or older at the time of registration to participate.
The hackathon is open to students currently enrolled at a Historically Black College or University.
Each team can have a maximum of four participants.
- Team members must be enrolled at the same school.
- At least one team member should be enrolled in computer science, computer engineering, or a related field of study.
For more on eligibility, see official rules.
© 2021 Zillow Group, Inc. and its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. Terms of Use & Privacy Policy.