Alternative Investing Report - July 1, 2026

*as of 6/30; Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, GOLD

The U.S. housing market remains in a rut, with the FHFA House Price Index falling 0.1% in April, and though it remains up 2.0% year-over-year, that is significantly lower than the pace of inflation. Meanwhile, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Index showed a more modest 0.8% gain year-over-year. Chicago, New York, and Cleveland posted the highest annual gains, while Seattle, Denver, and Tampa had the biggest losses. While the overall housing market is being outpaced by inflation, the luxury market has performed better, with an average 4.7% gain year-over-year and more pending sales than the overall market.

➨ TAKEAWAY: Luxury housing is defined as the top 5% of the market, and its affluent buyers tend to remain more insulated from the higher mortgage rate environment of the past few years. In general, the housing markets that have high-paying jobs or otherwise attract wealthy buyers have held up better than the rest of the country. Even within these markets, investors need to know about specific neighborhoods and localities where demand is outstripping supply.

In the newest episode of Smart Humans, Slava Rubin talks with Sacra’s Jan-Erik Asplund about the autonomous driving market, looking at market leader Waymo and emerging startups, as well as existing big tech companies such as Tesla, Amazon, Uber, and Lyft. They cover market history, current dynamics, future predictions, and investment opportunities across the sector.

📈 Share sales at record high: Led by SpaceX’s record-breaking IPO and Alphabet’s $85 billion equity capital raise, U.S. share sales hit a new high of $251 billion so far in 2026. There have been 11 IPOs of $1 billion or more, with anticipated IPOs from Anthropic and OpenAI possibly to come.

🪙 Crypto VCs leaving crypto: A number of VC firms specializing in crypto startups have been moving to other sectors, such as AI, biotech, and robotics. This migration coincides with the crypto market losing half of its value over the past nine months while other sectors have ascended.

🏀 Knicks keeping Finals ball: The ball tipped in by the Knicks’ OG Anunoby to win game 4 of the NBA Finals is no longer up for auction at Sotheby’s after the NBA decided it should stay with the Knicks. The ball was expected to fetch upwards of $3 million.

🤖 Higgsfield AI raise: The AI video startup is reportedly about to finalize a $500 million funding round at a valuation of $5 billion, which would quadruple its valuation from January.

🔆 Weather threatens data centers: Nearly 80% of data center capacity is at threat from severe weather like flooding, extreme heat, and wildfires. With the risks of climate change rapidly accelerating, tech giants and AI infrastructure companies are exploring ways to keep their systems cool and avoid power grid failures.

💵 Consumer debt risks: Private credit funds are working with "Buy Now, Pay Later" (BNPL) companies to make loans, raising concerns as the level of defaults rise in the consumer debt sector.

Worldcoin, the Sam Altman-backed crypto project that scans people’s eyeballs in exchange for tokens, had the biggest drop of any coin in the top-50 by market cap over the past week. The price had nearly doubled in the past month as news of OpenAI’s IPO led to increased demand for the token. There isn’t any direct reason for Worldcoin to benefit from the OpenAI IPO, and as such, the price has started to come back down. There is also a major token unlock coming later this month, which will likely boost supply and increase selling pressure as well. The token’s price has fallen by around 97% in the past two years, and 55% in the past year.