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December 2023 » thefivestar.com 57 December 2023 J O U R N A L smallest decline since July 2023. » The nation's monthly home supply stood at 3.7 months, up 0.3 points, marking the highest level reported since February 2023. A four to five months of supply is considered balanced, with a lower number indicating sellers' market conditions. » The median days homes spent on the market was 33 days, down two days year over year. IS AI THE END-ALL SOLUTION TO MORTGAGE LENDING INEQUITIES? A new article jointly authored by the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco and the Urban Institute takes a look at new research on the effects Artificial Intelligence (AI) in helping level the playing field for minorities and borrowers of color with the ultimate goal of advancing racial equity in home- ownership. According to the authors, the Black/white home- ownership gap is wider today than it was at the height of segregation in the 1960s, coming in at nearly 30 percentage points higher, but that number may be at a crossroads due to the rapid adoption of AI. Sourcing information from a new research paper entitled "Harnessing AI for Equity in Mortgage Finance," explores how AI could be the solution to shifting the mortgage and homeowning industry toward promoting greater equity in the mortgage financing process and close the homeownership gap which has been perpetuated by long-standing bias (or unconscious biases) that persist in the wealth-building capabilities of people of color. The authors also cite a report from the FHL Bank of San Francisco called "Racial Equity Accelerator for Homeownership" which considers the benefits of AI on the mortgage finance industry—but cautions that adoption is still in its infancy, and the time to set goals, standards, and biases of this new technology is now be- fore it's adopted on a larger scale and amplified to every facet of lending. "AI and the potential disruption in its wake have been the subject of many conversations, and this latest paper underlines the importance of getting ahead of the technology and harnessing it to advance equitable out- comes in our society," said Janneke Ratcliffe, VP of the Housing Finance Policy Center at the Urban Institute. "We cannot afford to wait and see how stakeholders will implement AI in their processes; we should act now to establish guidelines and guardrails to ensure that Black and Latino households are supported in their pursuit of homeownership." Teresa Bryce Bazemore, President and CEO of