Homeownership is one of the best ways to build wealth in the United States. But with house prices what they currently are, it’s going to be difficult to impossible for people to buy if they are not already wealthy. I completely understand parents gifting their children home down payment money, especially if the parents home is paid off and their wealth is going to go to their children eventually; should they see their adult children living in squalor while they sit on hundreds of thousands in their bank accounts doing nothing with it? should their kids have to wait until they’re 50 and their parents dead before they can buy a house?