Ivory Innovations 2025 Hack-A-House Winners offer Creative Solutions to Address Housing Affordability Challenges affecting Millions of Americans

Students from Harvard, University of Utah and Willamette University propose solutions to improve lending to first time buyers, increase access to affordable housing and develop cost-reducing construction methods to increase homeownership

SALT LAKE CITY, Oct. 1, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Ivory Innovations, both an operating foundation and a nonprofit academic center based at the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business, today announced the winners of its 2025 Hack-A-House competition. Hack-A-House is Ivory Innovations' annual virtual competition that gives college and university students across the country a chance to win $5,000 while tackling America's housing crisis.

Winning teams included One Block Away from Harvard University; HUD, Sweat & Tears from the University of Utah; and Project Picket from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. The contest included nearly 400 registrants representing more than 50 schools.

"This year's Hack-A-House contestants offered creative solutions to solving the housing affordability challenge ranging from improved lending opportunities for first-time and low-to-moderate income homebuyers to introducing new housing product types that bridge the gap between renting and homeownership," said Ian Cahoon, Director of Innovations, Ivory Innovations. "The winning entries representing teams from great universities in every region of the country are shining examples of the serious and thoughtful solutions bright young minds can offer to address the housing crisis." 

The Ivory Innovations 2025 Hack-A-House competition recognized winners in three areas (Construction & Design, Policy & Regulatory Reform and Finance). Participants were tasked with addressing specific challenges impacting housing affordability. After selecting a topic, contestants spent the next 24 hours strategizing with their teams, meeting with industry experts and preparing a short live presentation for judges in front of other competitors. Winners were selected by a panel of judges that included real estate industry experts, startup founders, academics and leaders of major companies.

Cahoon added, "In addition to our winners, we want to thank all of the teams who participated in this year's competition. The energy and enthusiasm the teams brought was truly amazing and the solutions created in just 24-hours can have a real impact in addressing a problem so many young Americans face."

This year's Hack-A-House featured runners-up from the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, the University of Utah and UCLA. The runners-up were Terraform3D (University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University) in the Construction & Design category; The Home Team (University of Utah) in the Policy & Regulatory Reform category; and Bear CDC (UCLA) in the Finance category.

2025 Hack-A-House Winners
One Block Away won in the Construction & Design category for their idea to combine offsite and onsite construction and for designing a new housing product type that will serve as an alternative to traditional single family homes, which can often be too large and expensive for first-time homebuyers.

"Together, we explored a new housing typology aimed at bridging the gap between apartment living and home ownership by leveraging innovative design, efficient construction methods, existing distribution and financial feasibility," said Justin Joel Tan, One Block Away Team Member. "We believe our solution, NeighborCore, delivers a vision that can be scaled, producing densification while still blending into the character of existing neighborhoods."

HUD, Sweat & Tears won in the Policy & Regulatory Reform category for their proposed new Tax Increment Financing (TIF) model designed to both protect existing homeowners from property value decline, dispelling Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) fears while incentivizing developers to build workforce housing and make community improvements.

"Affordable housing is a national crisis with far-reaching consequences that intersect with and exacerbate existing problems in areas like public health and economic inequality," said Elsa Steward, HUD, Sweat & Tears Team Member. "Instead of trying to tell people worried about their property values decreasing near new housing developments that they are wrong, we came up with a solution that strengthened communities, gave assurances to existing homeowners, and allowed for more dense, affordable housing to be built."

Project Picket won in the Finance category for a solution designed to improve loan accessibility for first-time homebuyers and low and moderate income borrowers by identifying underutilized land in high-opportunity neighborhoods and linking bank partnerships with FHA 203k loans and enabling banks to finance affordable properties in these areas to prospective buyers.

"The Picket solution greatly benefits both banks and first-time homebuyers by offering them unique access to generational wealth-building in high opportunity neighborhoods," said Diego Diaz, Project Picket Team Member. "What makes Picket even more appealing is that this solution requires no government subsidies, grants or changes to existing laws."

Each winner will have the opportunity to attend the upcoming 2025 Ivory Prize Summit on October 29, at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and compete for the competition's grand prize award. After the teams present, the audience, which includes a live stream, will vote to select the grand prize winner.

Please visit, ivoryinnovations.org/event-details/2025-ivory-prize-summit to register for the live stream of the Summit. Presentations and voting for the grand prize winner will take place from approximately 12:00-12:30 pm Mountain Time.

For more information on this year's winners, visit hackahouse.org.

About Ivory Innovations
Ivory Innovations is both an operating foundation and an academic center based at the University of Utah's David Eccles School of Business. Our mission is to catalyze high-impact innovations in housing affordability. We bridge research and industry to support cross-sector solutions, provide recognition and funding for groundbreaking ideas, engage a global student population, and contribute directly to the development of affordable housing in Utah. To learn more, visit ivoryinnovations.org.

SOURCE Ivory Innovations