With home prices at record highs and mortgage rates stubbornly above 6%, more prospective homeowners are turning to friends and family to afford a down payment—and that’s especially true for Gen Z.
A recent LendingTree survey of first-time homeowners illustrates just how much it now takes to get a foot in the door. A striking 80% of Gen Z respondents said they received financial help buying their home, compared with 56% of millennials and just 12% of baby boomers.
For many, the support is the difference between renting and owning. More than 1 in 3 people who received help said they likely couldn’t have purchased their home without it, a sentiment that was even stronger among women, 44% of whom called the help essential.
Beyond clearing the purchase hurdle, the assistance helped 43% of recipients qualify for a mortgage, and 33% reduce their monthly payments by lowering the principal loan amount.
Borrowing from the bank of mom and dad
Gen Z, many of whom are just graduating college, are entering the work world and the housing market at an especially fraught time, facing record-high home prices increasing at twice the rate of income growth.
That, combined with rising inflation across the board, has made it especially hard for Gen Z to gain any kind of solid financial footing. A recent GOBankingRates survey found that 56% of Gen Z have $1,000 or less in savings.
So it’s no wonder that so many are asking family and friends for financial aid when buying a home.
27% of Gen Zers surveyed by Lending Tree said they received down payment help from their parents.
An additional 27% of Gen Zers said they received down payment help from family other than their parents and, in some cases, friends.
Help is increasingly common
It isn’t just that younger buyers are relying more on their family members to financially bolster their home purchases; it’s that the goalposts have moved. Down payments reached a record high in 2025, with the typical median down payment sitting at $30,400. In high-cost areas like the Northeast, those numbers are even more eye-watering.
That may be why so many parents of Gen Z now expect they’ll contribute to their child’s down payment.
A recent survey from Veteran’s United Home Loans found that nearly 60% of parents have provided or plan to provide financial assistance to their children in homeownership, whether that be by contributing to a down payment, helping with closing costs, or paying for home furnishings and home improvements.
“These early expenses are often what stand between prospective buyers and actually getting into a home,” says Chris Birk, VP of mortgage insight at Veterans United. “That’s why more parents are stepping in to help bridge that gap and make homeownership possible sooner.”
While it’s become more and more expected that they’ll receive some kind of financial help from their families, many Gen Zers remain conflicted about taking outside help. The Lending Tree survey found that 21% of Gen Z homeowners who took advantage of family financial help felt “embarrassed” about it.
Optimism about home ownership remains high
Despite the large number of buyers needing help, the Lending Tree study found that 68% of Americans overall, and 61% of Gen Zers, still espouse some optimism about the housing market and believe homeownership is achievable without family wealth.
While the path to homeownership has become more difficult, it is still viewed by many as a reachable goal through hard work and traditional saving, even if current data shows a different reality for many new buyers.
For potential homebuyers who may not have access to generational help, there are other levers that can be pulled. There are more than 2,000 down payment assistance programs offering grants, loans, and tax credits for first-time homebuyers.
