Ivory Innovations announced three winners of its seventh annual Ivory Prize for Housing Affordability.
Working to source, support, and scale the most compelling housing innovations, the Ivory Prize recognizes and funds novel solutions to the housing crisis in three areas: construction and design, finance, and policy and regulatory reform.
In addition to national recognition and ongoing support from Ivory Innovations, each winner receives $100,000.
“We created Ivory Innovations to combat the widening housing affordability gap by recognizing and funding real-world solutions that are addressing this growing crisis,” says Clark Ivory, CEO of Ivory Homes and founder of Ivory Innovations. “The 2025 Ivory Prize winners are bringing to market visionary approaches that push the boundaries of what’s possible in making housing more affordable.”
This year, the Ivory Innovations team evaluated over 280 nominations from across the U.S. With a record number of nominees, this year’s cohort was the most competitive yet, reflecting growing momentum in housing affordability innovation. Finalists and winners are selected by Ivory Innovations’ advisory board, which comprises housing industry veterans from across the country.
The 2025 Ivory Prize for Housing Affordability honorees include:
Construction and Design Winner: Reframe Systems
Founded by former Amazon roboticists, Reframe Systems is revolutionizing housing production with modular micro-factories that build homes faster, cheaper, and more sustainably. The micro-factories leverage a combination of automated fabrication machinery and process engineering to allow the company to deploy factories in local markets faster and with lower upfront costs than traditional modular builders.
Finance Winner: Grounded Solutions Network: Homes for the Future Fund
Grounded Solutions Network’s Homes for the Future Fund leverages private-sector efficiencies to acquire and preserve affordable single-family rental homes for eventual sale to buyers from underserved communities. The multiphased model includes acquiring homes, operating them as rental housing, and utilizing property appreciation and rental income to sell at below-market prices to land trusts and other nonprofits. Once transferred into a local shared-equity organization, the homes are sold to homeowners at prices well below fair market value.
Policy and Regulatory Reform Winner: State of Florida and Florida Housing Coalition: Live Local Act
The state of Florida’s Live Local Act, passed in 2023 and implemented in collaboration with the Florida Housing Coalition, aims to tackle the housing crisis through zoning reform, tax incentives, and targeted investment. The law supersedes restrictive local zoning to allow by-right multifamily development on commercially zoned land, provides tax exemptions to incentivize affordable and workforce housing, and allocates more than $700 million in housing funding.
Check out additional details about the winners at ivoryinnovations.org/ivory-prize-2025-winners.
