Source: Fast Company —
Higher mortgage rates have quashed the housing boom of the past few years—and on Tuesday, the National Association of Realtors said that in February, home prices were lower in a year-over-year comparison for the first time in almost 11 years.
That’s the real world. Over in the metaverse, though, real estate is undergoing a different sort of struggle, as it’s tied so closely to the price of Ethereum. Average sales prices for parcels of virtual land have dropped from more than $11,000 to less than $2,000, according to WeMeta. But not all the news is bad.
The market for virtual homes is currently valued at $1.4 billion, according to a separate report from Parcel, a marketplace for Web3 gaming. To put that in perspective, in 2021, virtual real estate sales measured at just $500 million, meaning last year saw 180% year-over-year growth.
More than 62,000 unique digital wallets hold land, with some of those likely holding multiple properties.
There is, of course, some crossover between the virtual and real worlds. One Sotheby’s International Realty and Voxel Architects, for instance, have announced what they’re calling “the first open house in the metaverse” for a digital home dubbed Meta Residence One in the Sandbox metaverse. Buyers will also get a real-world version of the home in Pinecrest, Florida, an upscale neighborhood located about a half hour south of Miami where everyone from Jeff Bezos to Timbaland and Dwayne Wade have owned houses.
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