Younger Americans are finding alternative ways to step onto the property ladder amid a nationwide housing affordability crisis, including selling their digital currencies to finance their home purchases.
According to a recent study by Redfin, more than one in 10 (12.7 percent) recent young homebuyers—including Gen Zers and millennials—used cryptocurrency to help fund their down payment in May. Among the older generations, the share of buyers using crypto to finance their purchase was much lower: only 3.5 percent of Gen Xers and 0.5 percent of baby boomers sold crypto investments to fund their down payment.
“Crypto is giving the under-40 crowd something they haven’t had in decades: financial leverage,” Johnny Schiro, a Texas real estate broker working for RealOpen, a company that helps purchase high-value assets with crypto, told Newsweek.
“Nearly 40 percent of Americans under 40 now own crypto, compared to just 10 percent of those 65 and older. So when crypto runs like we’ve seen recently, it redistributes wealth toward younger people who’ve been largely priced out of homeownership,” he said. “Crypto creates velocity—wealth without waiting on legacy—and increasingly, it offers access to high-value assets like real estate.”
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