What’s the Best Way to Help Adult Children Buy a Home?

With home prices and affordability top of mind for some, especially in a midterm election year, we thought it was a timely moment to reach out to clients about the growing trend of families helping their adult children buy their first homes. Since we each play a pivotal role in supporting our clients, we felt it could be helpful to review how we caution clients that fronting a down payment should fit within a broader financial strategy. It’s a commitment that should be more involved than simply writing a check.

Why Are Families Stepping In More Often Than Before?

Many parents and grandparents of adult children are having conversations about how their children are working hard, doing the “right” things, and yet buying a first home still seems out of reach for them. They are wondering if affording a starter-home is more difficult than it used to be and whether they should consider helping if they can.

Data suggests that the home affordability challenge is real. The typical first-time homebuyer in the U.S. is now 40 years old, a record high and a sharp increase from 33 years old just five years ago. Waiting that long to buy a home can have real consequences, with those delaying their first purchase until age 40 giving up roughly $150,000 in starter-home equity compared with those who buy at age 30.¹

Often, through no fault of their own, clients' adult children may feel stuck in place, as the salary needed to buy a home doubled from 2017 to 2025, while the median U.S. home price has risen to $416,900.²

As a result, family support has become increasingly common, with nearly 80 percent of Gen Z homeowners receiving financial assistance, mostly from their parents.³

What Should Clients Think About Before Offering Help?

The decision we think clients face is less about whether to help and more about how to do so. Questions tend to surface, such as:

• What are the best ways to structure it from an estate and tax preparation perspective?
  
  
• What form should support take?
  
  
• How much can be provided without affecting long-term financial security?
  
  
• Are protections important in the event of a relationship change or if the home is sold?
  
  
• How should assistance be handled fairly across children or grandchildren?
  
  

We remind clients that working with professionals upfront to clarify these points early may make the mechanics easier later.

What Approaches Do Families Commonly Consider?

We inform clients that there is no single structure that suits everyone. Families often consider several general approaches, including an outright cash gift, an intra-family loan, co-owning the property or taking an equity share, holding the home through a legal entity, or gifting an existing property. Each option comes with different ramifications that should be considered.

How Does Helping Buy a Home Connect to the Bigger Picture?

Any form of assistance may work best when it’s part of broader financial and estate strategies. We caution that keeping clear records of gifts, coordinating with tax and legal professionals, and revisiting documents as circumstances change can help avoid misunderstandings later. State-level rules and future changes to exemptions may also influence the timing and structure of any financial arrangement.

Helping a child or grandchild buy their first home is rarely just about the transaction. For many families, it becomes an opportunity to share perspectives, discuss trade-offs openly, and think intentionally about how resources are transferred across generations.

As financial professionals, we understand that our roles extend beyond managing our clients’ assets to help them and their families with issues like these.

We’d welcome the chance to work with you to help our mutual clients better figure out how to financially support their loved ones’ dreams of owning a home.

^{1. Realtor.com, November 4, 2025.}

^{2. Visual Capitalist, July 30, 2025.}

^{3. Bank of America, December 2025.}