More and more first-time home buyers are getting help from their parents

Home buyers are increasingly turning to family members, most often parents, to help them purchase a home in overpriced and undersupplied markets, reflecting a shift in how Many families finance home ownership.

The share of young homebuyers relying on older mortgage cosigners is as high as it has been in at least 30 years, according to a Freddie Mac analysis of its home loans. In 1994, 1.6 percent of first-time homebuyers under age 35 had a co-borrower age 55 or older. In 2022, after a peak during the pandemic, this figure had more than doubled to reach 3.7%, corresponding to the peak reached in 2015.