If you’re a homeowner, there’s a good chance you’ve built up substantial wealth simply by living in your home and benefiting from its appreciation over time. That equity you’ve gained? It could be a powerful tool to help shape your child’s future.

With affordability remaining a major hurdle, many first-time buyers are finding it difficult to enter today’s housing market. Even with steady employment and a solid game plan, homeownership can still feel out of reach. That’s where your home equity can come in.

To put it into perspective, the average homeowner with a mortgage has around $311,000 in equity, according to Cotality (formerly CoreLogic). That’s a meaningful amount — and some parents are tapping into that equity to help their children buy their first home.

In fact, Bank of America reports that 49% of buyers aged 18 to 26 received financial support from their parents for their down payment (see chart below):



While the data doesn’t detail exactly how many parents used their home equity to help, the wealth they’ve gained through homeownership likely played a key role — especially considering how much equity the average homeowner has today.

Of course, every family’s situation is unique, and what works for one may not work for another. But using that equity to help the next generation is a powerful legacy. It allows young buyers to start building equity of their own, ease into homeownership with less financial strain, and move forward with more stability and confidence. And for parents, it’s a meaningful way to turn what they’ve built into something lasting.

This goes beyond just dollars and cents. For many, it’s about being the reason their child gets to say, “We got the house.” It’s about giving them a head start they may not have had themselves. And here’s a stat that brings it home — according to Compare the Market:

“Of those who did receive monetary aid from parents and grandparents to buy a house, 45% of Americans said they would not have been able to purchase a house without financial support from parents and grandparents.”

Bottom Line:
Your home equity might be the key that opens the door to homeownership for your children—especially when it may feel out of reach for them on their own.

So here’s the question:
Will you use what you’ve built to help them build a future of their own?