Alternative Investing Report - July 9, 2026

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*as of 7/8; Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, GOLD

Realtor.com is now projecting that median annual home price appreciation will fall to 1.2% over the rest of the year, down from its previous forecast of 2.2%. The midyear report also projects existing home sales to tick up 1% year-over-year, and rents to fall 1.2% nationally. Meanwhile, Zillow reported a 5.9% year-over-year gain in home sales in June, alongside a 1.1% rise in the typical U.S. home value. Inventory and new listings are also increasing, as supply continues to outpace demand.

➨ TAKEAWAY: The rate of appreciation has fallen significantly behind the pace of inflation, as the housing market remains stuck in neutral. Realtor.com does project that mortgage rates will stay steady the rest of the year, despite the chances of a Fed rate hike or two in the next few months. Investors should expect that the greater U.S. housing market will remain relatively flat in the short-term, but there are still markets that are showing promise - New York City, for one, which has the lowest apartment vacancy rate in the nation.

🚀 Data center IPO: CSquare, a data center firm owned by real estate giant Brookfield, filed for a $1.35 billion initial public offering that could value the company at $4.18 billion. This offering will gauge investor appetite for the AI infrastructure sector, which we will be covering in our next investor briefing.

🤖 Norm AI fundraise: The legal agentic AI startup raised $120 million at a valuation of $1.2 billion, another big fundraise in the legal AI sector. The company deploys AI agents to act as legal counsel to clients, supervised by legal experts and senior attorneys.

🏢 Industrial leasing gains: U.S. industrial leasing activity grew by 27% year-over-year in the first half of 2026, with properties exceeding 750,000 square feet seeing the biggest gains. This surge in demand coupled with a slowdown in construction, has led to reduced vacancy rates and should be good for landlords going forward.

💵 PE backlog: PE firms have a backlog of roughly 13,500 unsold portfolio companies, a number that would take 9 years to clear at the current pace of exit activity. A significant number of these companies were acquired at pandemic-era peak prices, and firms are reluctant to sell at a discount, but liquidity concerns may start to force their hands.

🚀 Another quantum fundraise: Oratomic, a quantum computing hardware startup that only emerged out of stealth in March, raised a $300 million Series A round to accelerate its development of a fault-tolerant quantum computer.

🏀 $1 million Brunson jersey: A game-worn Jalen Brunson jersey from the 2026 NBA Finals sold for more than $1 million at Sotheby’s, with jerseys from fellow Knicks players OG Anunoby and Karl-Anthony Towns each topping $250,000.

Tilly Norwood, an AI “actor” that got press coverage last year when Particle6 Productions announced “her” creation, has been “cast” in her first feature film which, unsurprisingly, is being created by Particle6. The movie is ironically called “Misaligned” and will involve real actors and crews working alongside AI specialists. In perhaps the cringiest part of the press announcement, the movie will be set in the “Tillyverse” and creator Eline Van der Velden says the movie will be “very Tilly” as if that means something that we should understand. Van der Velden has done a good job of creating a press uproar, and while AI filmmaking could carve out a niche someday, the most likely outcome is that this movie and its lead “actress” will be quickly forgotten.