Over One-Third Of Gen Z & Millennials Are 'Nepo Homebuyers' Who Expect Their Parents To Help Them Buy A Home
Is asking for help entitled or to be expected?
4 PM production / Shutterstock A major indicator that a person has reached independent adulthood in America is being able to buy property. Whether it’s a studio apartment in the city or a house in the suburbs, owning a home is seen as a marker of success.
Yet the economic realities of our world have shifted drastically over the past few decades, making it significantly harder for younger generations to find their footing on what’s proven to be unsteady ground. The high cost of living coupled with widespread wage stagnation means that most young people are struggling to keep their heads above water, let alone able to make any big investments.
More than one-third of Gen Zers and millennials expect their parents’ help buying a home, making them ‘nepo homebuyers.’
According to a survey conducted by Redfin, over one-third of Gen Zers and millennials who want to buy a home expect help from their parents in the form of cold, hard cash.
Expecting financial support from their parents isn’t the only avenue young potential homebuyers are exploring. They’re relying on their parents as safety nets in other ways, as well. Many have plans to use a portion of their inheritance for down payments, and others have moved back home to save money.
Photo: BalanceFormCreative / Shutterstock
In 2019, 18% of millennials used cash from their family to fund a down payment. In 2023, the amount increased to 23%.
It would be easy for older generations to look at those numbers and make a blanket statement about how entitled Gen Z and millennials are — how they’re lazy and unwilling to work hard.
Yet that narrow-minded stance overlooks how extreme the changes in the housing market have been in recent years, especially during the Pandemic Housing Boom, when home prices rose and mortgage rates skyrocketed.
Since 2020, housing prices are up almost 40%. In 2023 alone, prices rose 7%, along with a lessened supply of property. The median price of houses sold in the U.S. in 2023 was $417,700.
Calling young people ‘nepo homebuyers’ ignores the daily hardships they go through, trying to earn a liveable income in a world with ever-increasing costs.
Gen Zers and millennials are faced with an entirely different reality than their Gen X and Boomer predecessors. That they expect help from their parents shouldn’t be a shocking revelation, especially since passing down property has always been a part of how people maintain generational wealth.
Framing younger generations in a negative light for expecting financial support from their family ignores how generational wealth has always functioned.
It also leaves out a crucial part of the conversation: There’s a whole swath of people from marginalized communities who’ve never had access to building up that kind of wealth across generations.
Daryl Fairweather, the chief economist from Redfin, commented on that exact issue, noting, “The bigger problem is that young Americans who don’t have family money are often shut out of homeownership. Many of them earn a perfectly good income, too, but they aren’t able to afford a home because they’re at a generational disadvantage.”
“The American Dream is just as much about class mobility as it is the home with a white picket fence, and the housing affordability crisis has made both elements of the dream harder to attain,” she concluded.
The long-held narrative in the U.S. has been that anyone can have the trappings of success as long as they work hard. Yet not all people have access to the same entry points for opportunity, especially when you account for the myriad of systemic discriminations built into American society.
What’s become clear to Gen Zers and millennials is that the deck is stacked against them despite being promised a version of adulthood that’s becoming harder and harder to reach. It’s no wonder they’re looking for alternate ways to stake their claim, including asking for help when help is needed.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers social issues, pop culture, and all things to do with the entertainment industry.