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 and textbook gift cards. All eligible hackathon participants interested in a role at Zillow will have an opportunity to interview for an internship or new graduate opportunity.

Buying, selling and renting a home can be a complicated and confusing process. Zillow has launched products like Zillow 3D Home tours, AI-powered interactive floor plans, Zillow Homes to Compare, and collaborative home shopping with FaceTime SharePlay 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 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 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. Now, more than two years into the pandemic, incomes are lagging further behind fast-rising mortgage costs, leading to the most significant affordability challenges in the past 15 years. Recent affordability data shows monthly mortgage payments are taking about 28% of homeowners’ monthly income — dangerously close to the 30% threshold, beyond which is considered a cost burden.

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. The typical U.S. renter household spent 30.3% of its income on rent in August of 2021, and far more in some metros where income gains are falling behind rent growth. Rents across the U.S. have risen 11% since then. 

In 2018, a quarter of renter households — 10.9 million — were spending more than half of their income on rent. Rent burdens are unequal across races. While the nation’s white and Asian households typically spend below the 30% threshold (28.6% and 26.0%, respectively), Black and Latinx communities spend more – 34.0% and 32.1%, respectively.

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, but Zillow research shows that Black mortgage applicants are denied by lenders at a rate 84% higher than that of white applicants, an increase of 10 percentage points since 2019. 

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?