Growing Concerns About AI in the Home Buying Process

Artificial intelligence has found its way into everything. Buying a home is no exception—especially if a real estate brokerage or financing company is involved.

Today’s buyers are used to AI being part of shopping for most anything.  Most people expect it to be part of a real estate deal—bringing efficiency and precision into the process. And yet, concerns have surfaced.

Is a Crisis of Confidence Brewing?

This year (2026) the data firm Cotality published a report on changing perceptions about AI in the process of buying a home. The survey included recent and hopeful buyers in mainly English-speaking countries, the U.S. being one of them. There are a few standout points:  

• Three in every four home buyers expect AI to be integrated into the buying process and the companies’ websites.

• Buyers want to know, clearly, if and how AI is used by real estate and lending companies. Most people surveyed say they value the disclosure of AI use. Nearly four in ten people surveyed think companies should have to disclose, and more than six in ten baby boomers think so.

• Overall trust in using AI to find a home is drooping. Last year, Cotality showed the trust level at 30%. It’s only 16% now.  

• Most U.S. buyers now say they want a human to obtain a home loan for them. Last year, just 46% felt that way.  

• People want to know there’s a human overseeing the technology. More than four in ten real estate customers will pay extra for someone to double-check AI-assisted recommendations.

People want to know whether AI companies have actually proved themselves as responsible actors when milestone lifestyle and money decisions are made.  

Younger Buyers See More AI Benefits—Yet Use More Caution

Current home prices and interest rates have not been encouraging to hopeful buyers. So it’s interesting that deed seekers aged 45 and under think of AI as a confidence-booster during their home-hunting and buying journey. They also found it a help when seeking out insurance policies.

Younger people say they expect AI to speed up certain stages of the process. For the same reason, many young buyers also intend to rely on AI when the day comes to sell.

They’re right about the speed factor. Consider loan approvals. According to the federal Government Accountability Office, AI-based underwriting systems can hasten document review, income verification, and employment checks. This is due to AI’s capacity to digest many files at once. Cotality reports that AI can reduce the time it takes to issue a mortgage by one to three months.

Younger buyers are also helped when the closing cost burden is eased. Automated valuation models can save hundreds of dollars compared to standard appraisals.  

So, among all potential or recent buyers, it’s the younger generations who seem most willing to use AI. Interestingly, they are also the most willing to pay for human oversight of the AI tools. And they want to be informed. Indeed, nearly half of buyers don’t want lenders or insurers running AI valuations without their consent.

And Yes, AI Still Gets Things Wrong

At least 70% of the people who answered Cotality’s new survey find AI mistakes unacceptable. But AI is not right 100% of the time. And it can digest social bias. In matters of finance that can have intergenerational impacts, this is problematic.

Among these problems are the following:

• AI used by real estate websites can distort housing prices, according to the federal Government Accountability Office (GAO).

• This has very real, market-changing effects. For example, the Zillow® AI tool was found to influence listing and sales prices, pushing up property values in some areas.

Another big area of concern is AI’s ability to meaningfully assess homes and places for disaster and climate risks. Most home buyers would prefer a human’s assessment over an AI analysis of disaster risks.

The New Breed of Tech Jobs Is Also Changing Real Estate Markets

Redfin has noted an influx of highly paid AI workers moving into the San Francisco Bay area.

It’s a buying boom, says Redfin. Young people are coming in, signing up for large salaries and bonuses, and starting families. And they’re not frightened off by the market’s high asking prices.

The typical (median) San Francisco home costs around $1.85 million.

Supply is tight. Many San Francisco and San José deed holders would like to sell, but are still hoping to make their moves in a time of lower mortgage interest rates.

City leaders are adding thousands of homes to the area. The focus on new building projects fits with California’s statewide housing push. But critics of the building boom see the effects in terms of luxury homes and gentrification.

Reducing the gap between the haves and the have-nots just isn’t happening, they say. Speaking of which…

Will AI Help or Hinder Equal Opportunity?

Automated loan underwriting can help lenders understand risk better. Machine learning can be programmed to show lenders the real power of renters and independently employed people to earn and save money. And voila! Doors open for serious but nontraditional earners looking for home loans. Findings by the Government Accountability Office back this up. AI can help lenders connect people with multiple or inconsistent income sources with loans. That’s the good side of AI in lending.

On the other side of the coin, the GAO notes that AI models must be carefully monitored for compliance with fair housing law and policy. AI, says the GAO, could function in discriminatory ways.

No wonder Cotality said buyer confidence goes up when companies:

• Point out how AI might be influencing their materials, and how they address AI errors or biases.

• Produce reasonable, understandable disclosure and consent provisions.

• Have fact sheets and records to explain the models and their information sources.

Search algorithms may not reliably avoid references to personal characteristics that should not be considered when locating a home or assessing its value. AI could worsen the problems that the equality principle was written into the Constitution to address.

While automated appraisals may take no notice of race or class, they do pose the risk of repeating, rather than addressing, harmful and even unlawful errors or bias. 

Next to Arrive…

At the same time people are growing somewhat wary of AI in the deed-seeking process, they are also not thrilled about the data factories being built in their neighborhoods. To at least some degree, they might be finding the drawbacks of using AI for convenience outweighing the benefits.

However things may unfold from here, AI is now a major part of the public conversation around real estate—and just about everything else.

A Word in AI’s Defense

Of course, AI is not the only source of error, bias, or distortion in real estate. Human appraisers, agents, lenders, and buyers have always made judgment calls, and those judgment calls have not always been consistent, fair, or correct. A well-designed AI system, carefully monitored by people who understand both the technology and the law, could reduce some of those inconsistencies rather than worsen them.

AI could also help some buyers who have been underserved by traditional systems. Self-employed people, gig workers, renters with strong payment histories, and others with nontraditional financial profiles may benefit if lenders can use better tools to understand real earning power and risk. So the issue is not whether AI belongs in real estate at all. It is whether companies use it openly, responsibly, and with enough human oversight when the stakes are this high.