Employers add home buying perks as housing stays sky high

Why home buying help is showing up now

Open enrollment means benefit menus are under a microscope, and a tight housing market is pushing some employers to add home purchase support as a wellness perk. Companies are already wrestling with higher health plan premiums and out of pocket costs, yet many are still layering in employer assisted housing programs to help workers locked out by lean inventories and sky high prices.

These programs share a simple goal: ease the path for employees who want to own but cannot get there in today's market.

What the benefits include

Support ranges from education to cash. Employers are partnering with outside pros to offer home buying classes, research help, and coaching. Some go further with money toward a down payment, assistance covering private mortgage insurance, or payments that lower interest rates.

There is also a rental angle. Some companies chip in for rising rents when buying is not the plan, and a few even offer below market leases in employer owned housing.

A wave of specialist firms launched over the past decade has shifted from serving individual buyers to working with employers on these programs. Business Insider recently noted more companies are signing on. It pointed to Twitch, which tapped a Denver based real estate services specialist to give staff access to discounted mortgages, and to BNY, which earlier this year offered U.S. employees making under $100,000 a $6,500 down payment contribution plus education and mortgage benefits.

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What workers and bosses say

In Brown & Brown's polling, 61 percent of employees said they would look to switch to a company that provides housing benefits, and 42 percent said they had declined new job offers to keep housing support at their current employer. Nearly 40 percent said they would accept lower pay if housing help were part of the package, with the average cut around 10 percent. Among remote workers, 52 percent said they would go back to the office if employer assisted housing were added.

A separate study from NestSTEPS this year found strong sentiment as well. It reported that 84 percent said an employer housing program would materially ease their financial stress, 78 percent said they would leave for a job that offered it, and almost 90 percent indicated they would stay with an employer that provided housing support even after purchasing a home or paying off a mortgage.

Despite that interest, availability is thin. Brown & Brown found only 4 percent of employers offer housing benefits, though another 10 percent are considering adding them. The chief obstacles are dollars and duration: 56 percent feared the benefits would cost too much, and 49 percent worried about being tied to commitments that last too long.

The cost calculus and the investor angle

Employers are testing alternatives to straight pay raises. More than one in three, 35 percent, said they might swap in housing support in place of a salary increase if the employee agreed. Almost one in three, 31 percent, viewed housing benefits as cheaper than lifting wages. And 25 percent said elevated housing costs have already made hiring or retention tougher - a share that climbs to 40 percent for companies in high cost cities.

The bottom line: if EAHP shows up in your open enrollment packet, it is a sign companies are competing for talent in new ways while juggling health plan inflation. Check the details, note any tradeoffs such as pay adjustments, and map how a housing benefit might change your financial picture before opting in.

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