How much did your parents help you towards your first home of your own?

[tvguy]

No. But my mom did lend us money when we added on about 12 years later.

 

[tvguy]

I am curious. Do Americans not normally help their children to purchase their first homes? I think it is quite common in the U.K./Europe for parents to help children get on the property ladder, if the funds are available obviously.

Lenders often make borrowers prove they had the money for the down payment on their own before writing a mortgage. As I recall I had to provide a year's worth of banks statements to show this was our money, not a recent gift.

 

[AndreaDM]

None, but they did buy me a washer/dryer after I moved in.

 

[cheryl.UK]

They helped me move in, does that count? My parents were in their 40s when they had me so by the time I bought my first property when I was 23, they had already retired and weren't really in a position to help financially.

 

[quandrea]

Zero. Although my mother is convinced that they helped toward my home purchase. She has argued with me about it multiple times. I’m glad I did it on my own, it’s just very representative of my mother’s personality to insist they helped. Totally on brand.

 

[cvjw]

Lenders often make borrowers prove they had the money for the down payment on their own before writing a mortgage. As I recall I had to provide a year's worth of banks statements to show this was our money, not a recent gift.

We just had to sign a form for the bank who was handing my son’s home loan acknowledging that the $25,000 we gave him was a gift. That we had no interest in making him repay us. Very simple process.

 

[disykat]

The concept of young people owning a hime prior to being fully financially independent is foreign to me. My grandparents on one side never owned a home. My other grandparents had money but invested it in their business and other ventures but meanwhile rented until they inherited the family home. My parents bought their first home when dad was almost 34. DH and I bought our first home when I was 29. My younger son is still trying to get a down payment at 27 (he seems to think he's a late bloomer, but I don't think so! In a different market he has enough saved that he would have already purchased.) My older son was younger, but he bought a house in partnership with a coworker and they rented out rooms to cover their mortgage when he was 22 and right out of college. While older son was able to find a creative way to do it, it has never been an expectation or norm in our family to buy a house early in adulthood, even though we've all been firmly middle class (and, no, we didn't live in big cities.) IME, that's actually a pretty new expectation.

 

[CGB]

Zero. (And thanks to the VA, that's exactly what we put down on our first house!)

As for our kids, we will not offer them money for homes. We did make sure they didn't have any college debt. We also offered them the option to live at home after college while saving their money. When the time comes, they'll both be financially able to buy a new home on their own.

 

[fly girl]

Money? No.

Priceless ways, ABSOLUTELY. My Dad has helped my husband (and vice versa with my Dad's house) with home improvements. My Dad is worked in power engineering as an electrical designer so he configured our entire basement lights/outlets. He also helped install our kitchen cabinets when we remodeled -- along with a ton of other 2 man jobs to count. My Dad enjoys those projects and he and my husband really get along so they like helping each other out. Win/Win.

 

[tcufrog]

My parents bought us a fridge since our first home didn't have one. We're on our 4th home now and the fridge is humming along in the garage. My MIL offered to pay for the down payment but we declined because we knew that she would consider it to be her house even though she paid a relatively small percentage.

 

[punkin]

Lenders often make borrowers prove they had the money for the down payment on their own before writing a mortgage. As I recall I had to provide a year's worth of banks statements to show this was our money, not a recent gift.

A lender will be quite ok with an affidavit from the parents that the money is a gift, not a loan.

 

[tvguy]

We just had to sign a form for the bank who was handing my son’s home loan acknowledging that the $25,000 we gave him was a gift. That we had no interest in making him repay us. Very simple process.

Never dealt with that since our parents didn't give us any money. I just had to show the money I had in the bank had been there a while.

 

[kdonnel]

Lots of people here seem to be caught up in the fraternity mindset. If I had it rough, my kids should have it rough.

Seems many like to haze their kids.

 

[tvguy]

A lender will be quite ok with an affidavit from the parents that the money is a gift, not a loan.

I guess the time the money has been in your accounts is known as "seasoning". And it appears some lenders limit how large a gift can be.

 

[zillayen]

For our house, nothing, but they had paid for college so I didn't have student loans, that allowed us to save quicker for a down payment.

 

[GreatLakes]

My mom was my realtor so she sold it to me but every adult expense I've had from college to a house to vacations has been out of my pocket. I don't need my parents money.

 

[goofyernmost]

I am curious. Do Americans not normally help their children to purchase their first homes? I think it is quite common in the U.K./Europe for parents to help children get on the property ladder, if the funds are available obviously.

If it's normal here I didn't get the memo. I never got a nickel from my parents, but I did lend my daughters 2K for their homes that I got back as soon as they closed on the property. Since then they have both had multiple homes and all on their own.

 

[barkley]

Lots of people here seem to be caught up in the fraternity mindset. If I had it rough, my kids should have it rough.

Seems many like to haze their kids.

i didn't consider it being rough to not have had any of our parents offer money towards any of our home purchases-it's never occurred to either dh or i that as adults there is any kind of expectation for a parent to provide that kind of financial support. when they were alive we appreciated that if we needed a small loan we could approach at least one of our parents and they could accommodate it-we always paid it off b/c it was born a loan not asked for as a gift. we saved from our earnings for our down payments, sure it took time (our first one was saved for/bought during a u.s. recession/second was while cash flowing dh to get a degree), waited till we built up equity and could afford a bit better/bigger when the kids came along.

never saw it as having it rough, saw it as part of being an independent and self reliant adult.

 

[tvguy]

Lots of people here seem to be caught up in the fraternity mindset. If I had it rough, my kids should have it rough.

Seems many like to haze their kids.

I guess it depends on the situation. We bought a house because we were getting killed on our income taxes and we bought what we could afford to reduce our income taxes. Amazing how rich we felt back then, our gross combined earnings we $30,000 a year!

 

[Allison]

Lots of people here seem to be caught up in the fraternity mindset. If I had it rough, my kids should have it rough.

Seems many like to haze their kids.

That isn't what it is at all.

Who said anything about people having it rough? It was no hardship at all to be financially independent when buying a home.