Modern Consensus has announced an Ann Arbor, MI, couple are the first couple to obtain a conventional Fannie Mae-backed mortgage utilizing bitcoin collateral for a down payment.
down payment In their early 30s, Joe and Amy were prepared to purchase their first house, but they did not want to sell because they would have to pay capital gains taxes and forfeit any potential future gains because the majority of their money were in bitcoin.
Because their assets are tied up in cryptocurrencies rather than conventional savings, they were able to find a mortgage via Coinbase and Better Home & Finance Holding Company, which are providing Fannie Mae-backed mortgages to individuals who match all eligibility conditions except the cash down payment.
“The 30-year fixed mortgage was designed for a generation that kept its savings in a bank account and built equity through a single employer,” said said Vishal Garg, founder and CEO of Better. “That’s not the financial reality of millions of qualified buyers today that are building real wealth in digital assets. We’re excited to expand access to all qualified borrowers to fix an ongoing issue: buyers who qualify on every measure that matters but cannot clear the down payment hurdle because their wealth isn’t where the system expects to find it.”
Better yet, 41% of pre-approved clients are eligible based on credit and income but down payment.
for a conventional down payment. Concurrently, the median age of first-time homebuyers in the United States increased from 32 to 40.
“Buying our first home has always been the goal, but I wasn’t willing to give up a decade of investing to get there,” said Joe, a software engineer. “With this mortgage, I didn’t have to choose. We closed on our home and my Bitcoin stayed intact. We didn’t have to liquidate, didn’t have to time the market, and didn’t have to start over financially to achieve our homeownership goals. That meant everything.”
Mark Troianovski, Coinbase Head of Consumer & Platform Partnerships stated that the company thinks bitcoin should benefit its owners rather than just stay in a wallet.
“Funding the first token-backed conforming mortgage is one of the most concrete examples of that vision that we have seen,” Troianovski said. Tens of millions of Americans have built real wealth in digital assets. That wealth now has a direct path to homeownership, creating new opportunities for the next generation of homebuyers.”
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