Argentina’s Dollar-Only Market Falls on Cash Scarcity

Gonzalo Demarchi’s two-bedroom house in Buenos Aires was on the market for 18 months before he was finally able to sell it, at a 25 percent discount.

That was partly because Demarchi, like most sellers, would only accept U.S. dollars as the Argentine peso weakens. It also was because the country’s mortgage market, which had been growing, is shrinking with interest rates at a five-year high, forcing most buyers to pay cash in hard-to-get dollars.