Gen Z and Millennials Are Using Cryptocurrency to Buy Homes

Newsweek

21 hours ago

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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."
A Recent Price Surge Turbocharging Change
Cryptocurrency prices are hitting record highs after appreciating massively over the past decade. The cost of Bitcoin reached an all-time high earlier this month, with values exceeding $118,000 for the first time in the history of the world's most famous cryptocurrency.
This surge, according to Yaël Ossowski, deputy director at the Consumer Choice Center and a fellow at the Bitcoin Policy Institute, has followed a recent spike in real-time market demand for the asset.
"In price terms, it has always been a roller coaster despite the network itself remaining stable and the code remaining largely unchanged since its inception. People buying and selling is what creates the pandemonium that has led us here," he told Newsweek.
"It has rocketed up recently because its native properties and advantages, now heavily publicized for over 16 years, are becoming normalized, whether in government, on Wall Street or on Main Street," Ossowski explained. "There are communities learning how to send and receive Bitcoin in places with lack of traditional banking in Latin America and Africa, just as there are developers finding cutting-edge tools to use it in western countries."
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The recent surge in crypto prices is reigniting interest in how digital assets could reshape housing and financial access, "especially for those aged under 35 who often find themselves constrained by legacy systems and affordability barriers," Callum Brown, real estate expert for ABI Group, told Newsweek.
Young people view Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as "real money that holds and grows in value, perhaps even more than fiat money, therefore it's easier to create a 'stacking goal' or savings goal and be more disciplined and frugal," Ossowski said. "A lot of people who shun traditional financial tools or plans have put more of their hope in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin because it at least has a chance of appreciation."
A Roundabout Process
Many Americans are already buying their homes using their crypto assets, and the number is likely to continue increasing in the future as the Trump administration signals that it wants to embrace the technology fully.
But only a few homebuyers are currently paying for their purchases directly with crypto, and these are limited to the luxury market.
"There is certainly a niche community of real estate buyers and sellers who also accept cryptocurrencies, but it's nowhere near mainstream and reserved only for the crypto rich," Ossowski said. "For lending, the existing Fannie Mae Selling Guide required that all Bitcoin and crypto-assets be sold into cash before qualifying as assets for collateral calculations, and that has restricted what could otherwise be a very crucial part of the real estate market."
Photo-illustration by Newsweek/Getty
Most buyers hoping to use their crypto assets for a home purchase now have to convert their crypto into U.S. dollars and send a fiat wire to their escrow company.
"The seller sees a standard cash transaction, no different than if the buyer liquidated stock," Schiro said. "But the buyer retains privacy, speed, and security. They never have to move assets onto an exchange, battle withdrawal limits, or deal with bank wire headaches."
Still a Rarity in the U.S. Market—But for How Long?
Despite their growing popularity among young people, crypto-backed home purchases are still a minuscule share of all home sales in the U.S. market. For Schiro, this is due to a lack of education around crypto, as well as regulatory and banking friction against its use.
"Many real estate pros still think crypto means scams and volatility. If they can't explain stablecoins or how escrow works with digital assets, they're not closing crypto-backed deals," he said. "Exchanges were built to onramp. Offramping has always been the bottleneck. Until recently, crypto wasn't recognized in mortgage guidelines, forcing buyers to liquidate assets, triggering taxes and delays, just to start the process."
But that is changing fast as more and more companies offer services helping buyers liquidate their crypto assets to buy homes. This revolution could also be dramatically accelerated by the Trump administration's call for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to consider a buyer's crypto assets in their mortgage applications.
"With Fannie and Freddie now exploring crypto reserves in mortgage qualification, your BTC balance may soon count (mostly) the same as your checking account. For many in the crypto world, holding dollars is a missed opportunity—especially when the market runs hot," Schiro said.
"Letting crypto count in mortgage applications brings trillions in wealth into the lending system, but the current guidance requires assets to be held on an exchange," he said. "That's a dealbreaker for many serious crypto holders."
The change required of the two lending giants by the Trump administration would be "particularly impactful because it means that middle and lower-class Americans who may not otherwise have traditional wealth and assets, but who did decide to buy or trade Bitcoin and its crypto-offspring, will also have a shot at home ownership," Ossowski said.
There is another factor to consider when talking about the growth of crypto in real estate purchases: tokenization. A buzzword among crypto enthusiasts, tokenization refers to "a blockchain-powered mechanism that is helping turn real estate into tradable, fractional digital assets," Brown explained. "It has helped to unlock liquidity, global reach, and a new framework for ownership and investment, offering far more than speculative upside."
The momentum behind crypto and tokenization "is real and it's growing," Brown said, though it is still in its infancy.
"According to a joint report by Boston Consulting Group and ADDX, asset tokenization could reach $16 trillion by 2030, which represents nearly 10 percent of global GDP," he added. "Crypto may be the spark in these conversations, but it is tokenization, built thoughtfully by pioneers like Ironlight, which can truly be the engine that drives the future of real estate."
Schiro agrees, saying that while tokenization is in its early stages, "it is real," he said. It could become "the perfect on-ramp for younger buyers just taking their first step onto the property ladder," he said.
A Majority of Americans Might Sit This One Out
While younger generations may profit from the legitimization of crypto in the real estate market, most Americans are likely to remain indifferent to the changes. Overall, only 14 percent of Americans own any cryptocurrency, according to a recent Gallup survey, and most say they are unlikely to ever invest in the so-called digital gold, which they describe as too risky.
Dan Green, a mortgage expert with over 20 years of direct mortgage experience and president of Homebuyer.com, is skeptical about crypto fundamentally changing the U.S. housing market.
"If you're a person who bought crypto early and diamond-handed through the cycles, maybe you can use your crypto for a down payment or to purchase a home outright with cash," Green told Newsweek. "But these are edge cases. For most buyers, crypto is just one of many assets they own and it's no different than selling stock, exercising options, or cashing out a 401(k)."
Crypto is part of the picture today, "but it's not yet changing how homes are bought," Green said. "Only about 15 percent of American adults own crypto directly, not all of them are buying homes this year, and not everyone will use crypto for their purchase," he added.
"The percentage of mortgages linked to cryptocurrency will rise through 2030 but, for now, this may be a solution in search of a problem. Most homebuyers just aren't sitting on six figures in Bitcoin."
Considering how challenging it currently is for young people to save for a down payment, due to the recent surge in home prices, there is no doubt that crypto can help them get onto the property ladder. But only "about as much as a lottery ticket can help," Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin, told Newsweek. "Yes, some people will win big, but it's a gamble."
Fairweather personally does not think that crypto will revolutionize home buying. "Buying a home is still very old school. You need to have the down payment in cash, you have to get approved by a lender for a mortgage who needs to make sure you will be able to afford the loan. Crypto doesn't change that," she said.
"If crypto becomes more popular, more people will use it to buy homes. I think it's just easier for people to use cash or a mortgage. There are some transactions where the buyer wanted to pay in crypto and the seller was willing to accept it, but those are far and few between," she added.