Gen Z can’t afford a house. Some parents are choosing to fund down payments over college funds

A parent wants to see their kid make it in life. Maybe that’s going to a good school. Maybe it’s curing some disease or making it to the big leagues. And a parent wants to help with that journey—after all, it’s a parent’s obligation to care for their child. But how that care looks like has changed over time. It once simply meant school pickups and weekend soccer games, then college savings and late-night financial advice calls. But for many parents today, that support stretches far beyond childhood, following them well into adulthood.

A new study from financial services firm Northwestern Mutual reveals that parents are stepping in on one essential step for achieving the American dream: the down payment. The survey—conducted through more than 4,300 online interviews in January—found that more than half of parents, or 52%, are open to considering helping their kid buy a home—and 22% have already stepped in. 

Some parents are even rethinking the critical steps to ensuring their children have a shot at generating wealth. Twenty-nine percent of parents think helping their kid buy a home is more important than helping them pay for college, and more than half (55%) say it’s a toss-up for either one.

“A lot of these degrees are maybe not as valuable as they once were,” Ed Amos, wealth management advisor at Northwestern Mutual, told Fortune. “Having flexibility in those dollars is what parents are looking for.”

The value proposition of a four-year college degree is falling. Recent college grads are facing recessionary circumstances: 5.6% unemployment, surpassing the rate for all workers. And underemployment, or the share of graduates working in jobs that typically do not require a college degree sits at 42.5%. 

And the vibes are dire. AI is threatening a white-collar recession, which is expected to hit recent grads hardest. At the same time, home prices are skyrocketing. Homeownership—the ultimate promise of the modern American dream—is growing out of reach for young people. The average age of the first-time homebuyer hit 40 last year, up from the early 30s just a decade ago as the median home price tops $410,000 today.

Betting on bricks, not degrees

As some parents hesitate to shell out the almost $500,000 price tag attached to what a college degree could cost today, others are rethinking how they can position their children for financial success later in life. Amos said some parents he’s worked with are betting on homeownership as a key tool to ensuring their investments are well placed. One family he worked with, for example, helped their child buy a duplex while still in college, allowing their kid to live in one unit and rent out the other to pay down the mortgage, and ultimately build up equity before even entering the full-time workforce.

“The benefits of starting that wealth building early in life has tremendous impacts on where their children will be over the next few decades,” Amos said.

Yet Gen Z is finding itself in an increasingly precarious position. Young people today are left with crumbs of wealth compared to their Boomer and Gen X parents. Boomers today hold more than $86 trillion in assets, according to Federal Reserve data, more wealth than any other living generation. Gen X holds a significant slice of the economic pie too, with close to $44 trillion. That’s more than three-quarters the $167 trillion in total U.S. wealth. 

“It’s becoming less and less accessible to the entry-level employee straight out of college, trying to buy their first home,” Amos said. “It’s just becoming more and more difficult for these newer generations to do it on their own.”

High stakes gambling

With most of the country’s wealth locked away from Gen Z, many in the generation are looking for new and creative entry points into wealth generation. The Northwestern Mutual study found that Gen Zers are turning to high-risk, speculative assets for a shot at generating wealth. Nearly one-third of Gen Z have either invested in, or considered investing in crypto. One-third has also dabbled with the idea of, or are actively engaged in sports betting and prediction markets. And about 14% have placed their bets on meme stocks, or those viral stocks like GameStop popularized by communities like Reddit’s r/wallstreetbets subreddit—which now boasts over 4 million members—infamous after investors drove up the GameStop stock in 2021.

While these speculative bets paint a picture of a generation’s frantic scramble for financial footing, Amos said the most sustainable path to the American dream requires Boomers to hand over their wealth via more traditional assets like real estate. 

“Helping usher in that transfer sooner than passing will allow everyone to be able to share in that American dream,” he said.

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