We have allot of big new houses being built in our neighborhood. Most of them are being bought by young couples in their 20's. Parents or grandparents are giving them the downpayment, which is great I guess, if they can afford it. However, it seems after a year or two the houses go up for sale because they can't swing the payments anymore. Kids are out of a home and move back with the parents, and the parents are out of their money.

We rented many many years before we bought our first house. We got our down payment with a VA loan. The second house we bought, we borrowed against our 401K. I would have never even thought of asking my parents for money to help purchase a house. For one thing, they didn't have it. And the next, doing things on our own has taught us about hard work, goals, self reliance, patience/time, & responsibility, knowing we couldn't have everything we wanted right then, but in time we could.