Is AI Actually the Enemy of Homeownership?

I found myself appreciating a lot this past weekend. Thankful the days are longer and the buds are starting to bloom. Thankful to be able to attend Easter service with my wife and daughters. Thankful to watch a nostalgic movie about two plumbers with the family. And finally, thankful this week basically solidifies spring in my mind with the Masters tournament kicking off.

While the weather tries to decide whether it wants to be winter or spring here in central Ohio, dive into all the note-worthy housing and mortgage news from last week.

We are posting regular content to Instagram (Nick | Kreg) and Facebook (Nick | Kreg) to help you and your buyers stay informed. Be sure to follow us!

Read time: ~5 minutes

Rates ended LOWER compared to last week, and volatility was HIGH. Rates are in the mid 6% range for most loan types without paying discount points. Paying discount points can get you into the low-6’s.

Is AI Actually the Enemy of Homeownership?

A new survey from Redfin and Ipsos made Fortune headlines last week with a pretty grim finding: nearly 3 in 5 Americans think AI will eliminate jobs and make it even harder to afford homes. Redfin's chief economist Daryl Fairweather even suggested that AI anxiety, not just mortgage rates, may be keeping buyers on the sidelines.

The fear is real and not irrational. Nobody wants to commit to a 30-year mortgage when they're not sure their career survives the next five years.

But Kreg and I think the fear narrative is missing the bigger picture. AI may actually be one of the most powerful forces for expanding homeownership we've seen in a generation.

AI could dramatically lower the cost of building homes

The biggest driver of the affordability crisis isn't mortgage rates. It's that we don't have enough homes. AI is already being deployed to cut construction timelines, optimize building designs, reduce material waste, and streamline permitting. If builders can construct homes faster and cheaper, that $400,000 starter home starts looking a lot more like $300,000. Supply is the real solution to affordability, and AI is a supply-side weapon.

AI is accelerating remote work and unlocking affordable markets

AI is expanding the number of jobs that can be done from anywhere, and that's quietly reshaping where people can afford to live. When your career is no longer tied to a specific office in an expensive city, suddenly a $237,000 median home price in a market like Columbus looks a lot better than a $700,000 starter home on the coast. We covered Ohio's record domestic in-migration earlier this year, and affordability was the primary driver. AI-powered remote work is going to accelerate that trend significantly, pouring buyer demand into markets where homeownership is still within reach for middle-class families.

AI is creating entirely new job categories

Every major technological revolution in history eliminated some jobs and created entirely new ones nobody could have predicted. The internet killed travel agents and video store clerks. It also created social media managers, UX designers, cloud engineers, and e-commerce logistics roles that employed millions. AI is already spawning new categories (prompt engineers, AI trainers, automation specialists, and oversight roles) that simply didn't exist five years ago. These aren't minimum wage jobs. Many of them pay well above the median income and are perfectly suited to support homeownership.

AI productivity could mean higher incomes

In an interview with Fortune, Redfin’s Fairweather acknowledged that fears around AI job losses could be overblown, noting that a study published last month found thousands of executives have yet to see real employment or productivity impact from AI. Here's the flip side: if AI makes workers more productive without eliminating their jobs, the result is higher wages and more buying power. That's a tailwind for homeownership, not a headwind.

The bottom line

30% of those surveyed by Redfin believe AI will actually help boost the U.S. economy and help more people afford homes. I am definitely leaning into that camp. The doom scenario only plays out if AI eliminates jobs without creating new ones or lowering costs. History says that's rarely how technological revolutions end. The buyers sitting on the sidelines because of AI anxiety may be making a mistake. Don't let fear of the future keep you from one of the best long-term investments you can make today.

Buy a Home With Bitcoin if You Dare

Crypto is continuing to quietly make its way into the mortgage space.

We’ve discussed how buyers can safely liquidate their crypto holdings to buy real estate. In October of 2025, Kreg wrote about Chase potentially accepting Bitcoin or Ethereum as collateral in early 2026.

Better.com and Coinbase have made the first move announcing a crypto-backed mortgage last week that doesn’t require Bitcoin holders to liquidate their position.

Here's how it works in plain English. You get two loans at closing. The first is a standard Fannie Mae mortgage on the home. The second covers your down payment, and instead of paying cash, you pledge your Bitcoin or USDC as collateral to secure it. You never have to sell your crypto. Both loans are combined into one monthly payment.

Even if the value of the crypto falls, nothing changes on the loans as long as the borrower keeps making monthly payments. The crypto is held in custody for the life of the loan and returned once it's repaid.

The big deal here is the tax angle. For decades, homebuyers have been forced to sell assets to cover a down payment, often triggering capital gains taxes in the process. This product lets crypto holders use their wealth without a taxable event.

Do I see risks? Yeah, big time.

You are paying interest on two loans simultaneously, and one of them is backed by an asset that can lose 50-80% of its value overnight. Trust me, I’ve lived through many of the historical bear markets. If your crypto craters, your loan balance stays exactly the same but your collateral cushion disappears. And if you miss 60 days of payments for any reason, your crypto gets liquidated at whatever the current depressed price happens to be.

This product may work well for buyers who have significant crypto holdings AND other financial resources to fall back on. For someone whose entire net worth is tied up in Bitcoin, this is a high-wire act with no safety net.

March Jobs Report: A Bounce Back That Needs Context

Friday's March jobs report came in much stronger than anyone expected. The U.S. economy added 178,000 jobs in March, and the unemployment rate ticked back down to 4.3%. Markets had been expecting around 60,000. On the surface, this looks like a significant rebound.

January was revised up by 34,000, from +126,000 to +160,000. February was revised down by 41,000, from -92,000 to -133,000. Combined, employment in January and February is only 7,000 lower than previously reported.

Job gains in March were concentrated in healthcare at 76,000, with ambulatory health care services alone adding 54,000 (including 35,000 from offices of physicians as workers returned from the Kaiser Permanente strike).

Following the report, futures markets pointed to virtually no probability of a Fed rate cut at the April 28-29 meeting and a 77.5% probability the Fed stays on hold through the end of the year.

From an interest rate perspective, the Iran war is still calling the shots.

Instagram Reels from the Week

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