05/23/2026
Buying a home has always been a milestone of financial independence. For some young Americans caught in the least affordable housing market in decades, it has become a family affair—strings attached. 🔗: https://on.wsj.com/4dTUM4V
After years of annual moves in search of lower rent, Jennifer Gross had ended up with a roughly two-hour round-trip commute to work. Her father stepped in and offered to buy her a house. She gratefully accepted.
Jennifer’s dad, Mark Gross, had a spending limit of $700,000, and one condition: She had to stay within 2 miles of him. The four-bedroom house they closed on last month was $625,000, and an 8-minute bike ride away.
The mortgage is in her father’s name, and Jennifer pays him $2,200 a month to cover a portion of the payments. He bought her sister, Jessica Locati, a house nearby a few months earlier, fulfilling their mother’s dying wish that the family live close to each other.
“Face value, there is immediate judgment, my dad bought me a house,” Jennifer said. But, she noted, her family didn’t grow up wealthy. The older generations saved and invested well, and are now in a position to help the younger generation.
“This is the pinnacle of every sacrifice each generation has made to pay it forward to the next,” Jennifer said.
At wealth-management firm AlTi Global, co-head of U.S. wealth planning Brittany Cook says her clients are more apt to ask about buying—and then actually buy—homes for their kids than they were in the past. Many are giving cash or short-term loans up front so that their kids can make their offers more competitive.
Cook attributes the shift to increased housing market competition—“but also because wealth has grown, and people want their kids to enjoy it before their death.”
Read more: https://on.wsj.com/4dTUM4V
