With home prices continuing to soar in popular markets across the country, first-time homebuyers are finding it increasingly more difficult to score a small piece of the burgeoning real estate market. Yet recently published reports have splashed head-scratching breaking news about virtual real estate properties selling for upwards of $4 million in newly emerging Metaverse platforms. Described as an alternate digital reality where people can work, socialize, play, and interact, the Metaverse is a newly emerging technology offering virtual 3D environments complete with avatars in a sophisticated cartoon-like atmosphere. Republic Realm, a virtual land investor and developer, recently dropped $4.3 million for virtual property in The Sandbox–the largest metaverse land purchase to date. Meanwhile, Tokens.com, a digital investment firm, paid $2.4 million for a virtual estate in Decentraland. Both of these deals involved non-real real estate, and the big question many have is why would anyone spend such a huge …