Shared Equity Strategy Wins Big With 2025 Ivory Prize Honors

Grounded Solutions Network, a nonprofit known for its work in lasting housing affordability, is one of three 2025 Ivory Prize winners. Its Homes for the Future program — recognized in Ivory Innovations' Finance category — offers a new approach to an old challenge: making homeownership affordable without relying on scarce public subsidies.

We created Ivory Innovations to combat the widening housing affordability gap by recognizing and funding real-world solutions that are addressing this growing crisis," Clark Ivory, CEO of Ivory Homes and founder of Ivory Innovations, says in a provided statement. "The 2025 Ivory Prize winners are bringing to market visionary approaches that push the boundaries of what's possible in making housing more affordable. Through collaborative policy reform, groundbreaking construction approaches and innovative financial solutions, these leaders are turning the tide on one of our country's most pressing challenges—housing affordability."

Ivory Innovations' advisory board of jurists found that Grounded Solutions Network's HFTF fund is innovative in leveraging a proven model for providing permanently affordable homeownership opportunities - the community land trust. The innovation lies in GSN's partnership with a scaled single-family rental operator, which allows HFTF to purchase and rent scattered-site homes nationwide, leveraging private-sector efficiencies and economies of scale in these homes' acquisition and rental operation. With its national network of local land trusts and shared equity nonprofits, GSN is exceptionally well-positioned to lead the fund.

For Devin Culbertson and his team, the answer is to harness the same infrastructure that powers institutional single-family rental (SFR) portfolios. Homes for the Future acquires rental homes in markets with strong economies and rising incomes, leases them with stable rents, and then transitions the properties into shared equity homeownership. The model pays the mortgage through rent, reducing the eventual sales price to below-market levels while retaining affordability for future buyers.

We're not competing with institutional investors," says Culbertson, vice president of innovative finance at Grounded Solutions. "We're using their platforms—just with more nuanced goals. We're a different kind of investor, looking to create social returns that continue well after capital is returned."

What Is Shared Equity?

Shared equity homeownership is a strategy in which homes are sold below market value in exchange for resale restrictions that keep them affordable for future buyers. Instead of collecting full market appreciation at sale, homeowners share the gain with a nonprofit or public entity — a tradeoff that enables more families to buy in, build wealth, and stay in their communities.

The model has a proven track record. Studies show over 90% of shared equity homeowners remain owners after five years. It also closes wealth gaps: Nearly half of shared equity homes are affordable to low-income households.

What Culbertson and Grounded Solutions have done differently is apply institutional investment logic to scale that impact.

A Capital Model for Affordability

Homes for the Future emerged in 2021 amid soaring home prices, investor consolidation of rental housing, and rising interest in impact investing. Culbertson saw an opening to blend those forces into a financially viable solution.

We weren’t trying to do some kind of arbitrage on home price appreciation," he explains. "It was a long-term bet on sound economies, modest returns to investors, and keeping rents stable while we worked toward exit."

The Ivory Prize recognition, he says, validates that thesis.

The application process felt like underwriting. They asked tough, detailed questions about execution, risk, and return. It wasn’t theoretical. It was real."

Beyond Subsidy: Toward Scale

Shared equity programs historically rely on local public funding — a limitation that constrains scale. Homes for the Future changes the game by operating without that reliance.

Our model is designed to function without needing cash subsidies at the exit," Culbertson says. "We make it work by choosing markets with strong income growth, low operating costs, and high-quality local partners."

That last part is key: Grounded Solutions works with nonprofits and service providers who have built trust in historically underserved communities. While the program doesn’t target specific racial groups, it does prioritize areas where displacement pressures are rising and affordable homeownership can help close generational wealth gaps.

While taking home the $100,000 prize from winning the Ivory Prize competition aids in continuing Homes for the Future, Culbertson says connecting with like-minded individuals in the industry was one of the best parts of competing.

It was exciting for us, because what we were hoping for in [participating in] the Ivory Prize was recognition,” Culbertson said. “We have a network at Grounded Solutions, but that doesn’t make up the entirety of the housing sphere we’re looking to connect with. So, getting our work in front of different folks in the housing ecosystem was critical to that opportunity.”

Why This Matters to Builders and Developers

The Homes for the Future model has implications for more than just nonprofits and impact investors. For market-rate homebuilders and residential developers, it hints at emerging partnership opportunities—especially in places where affordability roadblocks slow entitlement, dampen sales velocity, or threaten workforce retention.

We're not here to replace the market," Culbertson notes. "We're here to augment it—to open the door for the folks being left behind."

Looking Ahead: A Million-Home Ambition

The Homes for the Future team has set an ambitious goal: 1 million homes transitioned to shared equity affordability. That would require an estimated $1.2 billion in concessionary capital to unlock $1.5 billion in market-rate debt—a fraction of U.S. foundation endowments.

We believe communities should have more than two options: rent or buy at full market price," Culbertson says. "We need a third lane—a way to build wealth, stay stable, and keep homes affordable."

Grounded Solutions is expanding the program to Atlanta and Texas to plant roots in various urban, suburban, and rural markets.

We’re excited about getting a stable anchor in several places,” Culbertson says. “Then, incrementally branch out into different markets and sub-markets.”

The shared equity model may offer more than a feel-good fix for U.S. housing leaders navigating rising costs, widening inequality, and growing policy pressure. It may be one of the most brilliant long-term plays in the game.