It's no secret that buying a home is expensive. The average sales price for U.S. homes has hovered around $400,000 since the end of 2021, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis .

Most homebuyers looking to cover that cost turn to mortgage lenders, who pore over financial details like salaries, bank balances and retirement accounts to determine how risky it is to lend the money.

That review process has typically excluded crypto assets. But for the roughly 15% of Americans who invest in digital assets , that could soon change.

In June, a directive issued by the Federal Housing Finance Agency ordered mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to develop proposals to consider crypto as an asset in single-family home risk assessments.

The director of the agency, Bill Pulte,

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