Here’s how much you can get home for your Bitcoin

Before mortgage rates changed, the US housing market was difficult to crack.

Locking interest rates at low epidemic and pre-epidemic rates has kept homeowners from selling or refinancing their homes.

Mortgage rates fell ahead of Fed tapering

Meanwhile, the low supply of homes for sale due to interest rate fluctuations during the pandemic has pushed up house prices. The U.S. 30-year fixed-rate mortgage yield fell to 6.47% on August 8, according to data from the St. Louis Federal Reserve.

In November, home loan rates hit a two-decade high. Mortgage rates hovered below 8 percent. So the sudden drop in home loan rates ahead of any central bank rate cut comes as a relief to the housing market.

Since the pandemic, the average US home price has risen as interest rates have risen. As of 2022, the median home price in the U.S. will top half a million dollars, according to Federal Reserve data.

“I don't have an infinite supply of cash, so I can't throw money in the bank just because the interest rate is high,” says Austin, Texas real estate agent Melanie Suber.

She might be kidding the Federal Reserve because the central bank has an infinite supply of money. The firm can continue to add dollars to the money supply as long as it decides to maintain low unemployment and stable and predictable inflation.

But Bitcoin (BTC), a new type of currency designed for the Internet, does not have an infinite supply of money. A fixed supply of 21 million bitcoins creates a shelter for holders from central bank inflation. That hard supply cap results in a currency that gains purchasing power against the dollar as the supply of the greenback rises.

US house prices in Bitcoin

With mortgage rates hitting new lows ahead of a Fed rate cut in the US, here's how much Bitcoin (BTC) you'll need over the years to cover the average home purchase price with secure internet cash.

In the year August 2014 – Ten years ago, the price of Bitcoin was $491, according to CoinMarketCap historical crypto data. The median US home price was $340,400. So at that time it took 694 BTC to buy a house at average US prices.

August 2019 – Five years ago, Bitcoin was worth $11,523, the average US home price was $382,700. So in 2014, Bitcoin savers who had 694 BTC and held it instead of buying a house or spending it, five years later had to take 34 BTC out of their wallet to buy the average US house.

August 2024 – Currently, Bitcoin price has traded with a range at the $60,000 level, a key support since February. In that space on crypto exchanges, the average US home will sell for $501,700 in Q2 2024, taking less than 9 BTC to buy a home at today's high home prices.