Puerto Rico is welcoming residents from the mainland in record numbers. For years running, financial tech startups have set up headquarters in Puerto Rico, so the growing list of newcomers from the mainland reads like part of the tech sector who’s-who list. The big draw? A law that lets new residents pay nothing on capital gains from the assets they acquire after establishing residency.

Now, following Bitcoin’s big run in 2021, the Puerto Rico tax savings are impressive — for those in the position to benefit.

Continue reading “Crypto at the Beach: Puerto Rico’s Blockchain Buzz”

Fannie and Freddie Weigh In

The future is here. People now buy homes with bitcoin. Some of the most upmarket real estate listings accept top cryptocurrencies and even showcase blockchain-based digital art inside the home. (The art concept is pretty intriguing. People buying digital art as part of a home could build massive collections of and rotate the individual pieces with a click of an iPhone.)  

Most people who have the digital assets to buy, furnish, and decorate a home, though, do this after converting the coins to cash, and making a cash offer.

What about working with lenders? Will they understand, say, bitcoin as a legitimate asset of the cryptocurrency investor who wants it counted when seeking a loan approval? Let’s get into all of this now.

Continue reading “Bitcoin for Mortgages and Down Payments”

Time to Get Meta?

In October 2021, Facebook changed its name in homage to the metaverse. By combining real and online worlds, the metaverse, says Facebook, will be “the next evolution in a long line of social technologies.” 

So this is why Facebook has been suggesting that people make all those cartoonish avatars of ourselves? Similar elements feature in Roblox and other online game concepts. Now, Facebook plans to hire 10,000 people in Europe to help its proprietary metaverse get out in front.

Continue reading “Virtual Real Estate: Buying a Piece of the Metaverse”

Not too long ago, we reported on United Wholesale Mortgage and its eye-catching plan to accept cryptocurrencies for mortgages by late 2021.

As we wrote then:

Whether the idea will find adherents remains to be seen. Certainly, many UWM customers are big crypto holders. But that doesn’t mean they want to part with their digital assets.

OK, now it’s late 2021. And indeed, while the idea got a flurry of attention, UWM has abandoned it. CEO Mat Ishbia said borrowers thought it was a “cool” idea, but there was “not enough demand at the end of the day” to keep it going after an initial test. The six borrowers who participated in September and October 2021 may now owe taxes for paying in digital assets rather than cash.

Never mind.

Continue reading “United Wholesale Mortgage to Accept Crypto— Wait, Never Mind.”

Cryptocurrency is on a roll as we go to press. Things can change quickly in this arena, but right now, values are high. Bitcoin has never been higher. BITO, a new exchange traded fund (ETF) for bitcoin futures has come out. Even Berkshire Hathaway is talking about buying a home with bitcoin.

And now Coinbase, known for its role in the future of money, is thinking about the future of real estate.

Continue reading “Coinbase and Real Estate: Perfect Together?”

Luxury Portfolio International now finds cryptocurrency closing in on gold as the most sought-after store of value among the world’s affluent people. The finding is based on a survey of more than 3,000 respondents, as noted in the firm’s report State of Luxury Real Estate 2021: Finances of the Luxury Home Buyer.

Well over half of luxury home buyers believe in investing in a backup asset other than cash. Gold and now cryptocurrencies are their assets of choice.

Continue reading “Blockchain of the Rich and Famous?”

An Industry First

The Blimp Homes app brings real estate sellers and seekers together with agents. And with Blimp, there’s something more. Together with the Home Network Foundation (homefoundation.io), Blimp Homes has introduced an industry first: a home search platform is designed to be decentralized, user-focused and transparent. It’s built on the HOME Protocol — on blockchain.

Real estate agents are being assigned cryptographic assets called HOME tokens when they sign up with the Home Network. Buyers and sellers will soon be earning HOME tokens on the Ethereum blockchain when working with others on the Blimp platform.

U.S. real estate is the starting point. The network has plans to expand to cover all of North America, and then go further.

Continue reading “The HOME Token on Ethereum”

United Wholesale Mortgage wants to take payments in cryptocurrency by late 2021. The point? To be the first mortgage company to take the plunge. “I’m not going to sit here and wait for everyone else to do it and then follow,” CEO Mat Ishbia told Julie Hyman for Yahoo Finance.

The CEO first broke the news on its second-quarter earnings call in August, mentioning Bitcoin and Ethereum as top currency candidates.

UWM’s core business involves underwriting loans for mortgage brokers. Nearly a million homeowners send money to UWM every month, and many of them make their monthly payments through the company’s website.

Continue reading “United Wholesale Mortgage Plans to Accept Crypto in 2021”

In debates over a 2021 infrastructure bill, blockchain tax is contested ground. Cryptocurrency proponents are keen on keeping the crypto mining and development communities in the United States. Heavy regulations and taxes could run the risk of tossing the baby out with the bathwater, they warn. Overbroad taxation could suppress the evolving blockchain technology that supports smart contracts.

The issue matters to the world of titles and mortgages. Here, we note some evolving use cases for blockchain — especially in the mortgage sphere.

Continue reading “Blockchain and the Mortgage Loan”