Alternative Investing Report - October 21, 2024

*as of 10/20; Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, CL50

Homeowners earned an average 55.6% profit margin in Q3 when selling their single-family homes and condos, down slightly on both a quarterly and yearly basis but still at a historically high level. The average seller earned just under $130,000 in profits, up 2.7% yearly and near an all-time high. Sellers showed those returns after owning their homes for an average of 8 years. The biggest gains percentage-wise came in Trenton, NJ, Albany, NY and Rockford, IL, while the biggest drops came in San Francisco, Austin and Honolulu.

➨ TAKEAWAY: Despite a slow market, homeowners are by and large still coming out ahead when they sell their properties, even if they are holding it longer than they did previously. Property values are holding steady, as the median sales price increased by 0.2% quarterly and 5.3% year-over-year. Foreclosures made up just 1.3% of all sales, a rate that has remained steady over the past year, and comparing it to the 30.1% figure from 2009 shows that a slow market is significantly better than a down one.

There are a record-high 617 million owners of cryptocurrency worldwide, and 220 million different blockchain addresses were active in September, triple the count from the end of 2023. One driver of this growth is the increasing prevalence of stablecoins, tokens linked to the value of traditional currencies like the U.S. dollar that facilitate trading and other activity. Infrastructure improvements have also significantly increased transaction speeds and lowered costs, making it easier for people to transact with crypto.

➨ TAKEAWAY: The value of crypto is directly tied to demand, which can be tracked by seeing how many people are using it. The uptick in activity is good for investors, and as the user base has grown, so has the price. For example, Bitcoin is up over 60% in 2024 and 130% in the past twelve months as usage has increased.

As we enter a new rate cycle, new opportunities are arising for real estate investors. On October 29 at 11 AM ET, join a discussion about how best to build your portfolio featuring EquityMultiple CEO Charles Clinton, Groundfloor CEO Brian Dally, AcreTrader CEO Carter Malloy, moderated by Vincent CEO Eric Cantor.

📜 Constitution sale: The only known privately held ratification copy of the U.S. Constitution sold for just over $11 million at auction. The document dates back to 1787 and was found two years ago in a filing cabinet on a North Carolina farm.

💵 Private credit overvalued?: The investment management firm Pimco believes the spread between public credit and private credit has narrowed too far when considering the higher risk present in the private market.

🏡 Housing starts fall: Overall housebuilding numbers fell slightly in September on both a monthly and yearly basis, with a slowdown in multifamily construction to blame. Single-family construction was actually up 2.7% monthly and 5% yearly, and housing completions rose by 14.6% year-over-year.

🪙 Trump’s WLFI share: World Liberty Financial, the crypto project affiliated with the former President, finally published a whitepaper, and revealed that Trump and his family could receive 75% of the net revenue the project generates.

🏀 Michael Jordan’s shorts: A game-worn pair from Games 3, 4 and 5 of the 1998 NBA finals will be up for auction next month at SCP Auctions, the first time a pair of Jordan-worn shorts from that series has been publicly available.

🚀 AgTech funding: Q3 saw $1.5 billion of funding across 161 AgTech startups, a 3% decline in volume and 13% decline in deal count compared to Q2, with the biggest U.S. round going to Agrovision, a producer of superfruits, which raised $100 million at a $1 billion valuation.

This week: The IMF and World Bank hold their annual meetings in Washington, D.C.

Tuesday: The Shohei Ohtani 50th home run ball auction ends.

Wednesday: Existing home sales report released.

Thursday: New home sales report released.

Friday: The 2024 World Series begins, with the New York Yankees facing the Los Angeles Dodgers; Consumer sentiment numbers released.

Saturday: “The Junkyard: The Rudi Klein Collection” classic car auction at Sotheby’s, featuring five cars expected to sell for seven-figures, and a 1956 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL “Alloy” Gullwing expected to fetch between $4.5 million and $6 million.