I understand the current housing market is messed up, but parents helping their kids putting a down payment for their house is dystopic "nepotism" now? Wouldn't you help your loved ones if you have the means to do so even if you are not super rich?
Would it have been better if they told their kids to pick themselves up by their own bootstrap and get a 30 year loan from big banks instead?
I hate this term ... giving your kids money to help them start out on their own isn't nepotism, it's parenting.
Nepotism is when you violate a responsibility you have to a third party (e.g., your employer) to act impartially in their interests, in order to benefit your family.
Is the idea that parents should donate their money equally to everyone's kids? This makes no sense.
God, if only people could just like pool their resources together to build homes or something...
We could even call it something like "social housing," and have it be a publically regulated service instead of treating housing as some sort of game of investment for the wealthy? No no, totally impossible...
That's not nepotism. Nepotism would be some land baron giving land to his kids, or a city official changing zoning to allow their family member to build something otherwise restricted.
Don't worry, I was trying to buy a house with my parents this past year. Even if they sold their current house to help, we couldn't afford what we'd need (3 bed 2 bath) since they don't have a ton of savings and only one of them is working still.
I got 20K from my parents for my down payment when I was 45 and they still had to co-sign for me to get approved. No way in hell I could have gotten the house without them.
I'll definitely be buying my children houses, with all that tons of spare money I have around. Piles of it. Yep. Sooooo much money
Seriously, who are these people that can fork out $100k to each child? I don't even have retirement savings, and I'll die on the job, with any luck! #genx
Well I’m pretty mad that I’ll never be able to afford a house, despite having a good solid job. My parents aren’t rich, so they can’t help me. And while I’m not mad at them for not being able to help, I am mad that all other things being equal that puts me at a disadvantage.
Here’s a hypothetical scenario: Let’s say I make $60K a year, am single, with significant student debt. Let’s also say because of the pandemic payment pause, maybe I was able to save, like $5K, and I want to buy a house. Not gonna happen. Now take all the same things but add in well-off parents who could help with a down payment. That hypothetical person gets a house. They have a definite advantage. To me, that’s not just unfair, it perpetuates a system of wealth transfer that only helps part of the population. Everyone should have the same opportunity to own a home, if they want to.
Nothing is going to fundamentally change so long as housing supply drastically falls short of the demand. There's no way to escape the core issue that we don't have enough housing units in the places people want to live, and so the units that are available are going to go to the wealthiest people seeking them.
Obama (or Illinois?) gave me 10k down payment in 2009 and I got a tiny townhome at 23 right after I got a job outta college. I stayed in it for 10 years and traded it in for a bigger house like a crab after I got married.
I was not money conscious at the time but my dad pretty much forced me to get a house if I had the means. I'm glad he did.
So I guess I was also gifted my down payment from my parents and other tax payers parents.