A quarter of millennial homeowners received help with their down payment from their parents.
Posted by Real Time with Bill Maher, Checked
- Sources
- 1 support4 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 55%
Real Time with Bill MaherOct 24, 2026
The claim matches the post's own wording (extraction is faithful). The sources do not report a millennial-specific parental figure, but a LendingTree-based report gives 27% of homeowners aged 27-42 receiving parental down payment help, close to a quarter, so the claim is directionally supported at thin confidence.
This claim is about the present, so it is judged as of the day it was checked.
What was said
… Beats the hell out of my allowance as a kid. You thought you raised a couple of young adults? No, you raised a subscription service that automatically renews. And buying a house, a quarter of millennial homeowners needed to get help with the down payment from the Bank of Dad. The median starter house in LA costs 639 grand. The only way the average young person could afford that is by dating Bill Belichick. We have to stop robbing tomorrow because we're paying so much for yesterday. …
Real Time with Bill Maher · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Supports. A LendingTree-derived report gives 27% of homeowners aged 27-42 (which overlaps the millennial cohort) receiving down payment help from parents, close to the claimed quarter.[1]
Context. LendingTree's 2023 survey reports 56% of millennial homeowners received down payment help from any source, but it does not break out the parental share for millennials.[2][3]
Context. Across all homeowners, only 16% say their parents helped with the down payment, and the 2026 Coldwell Banker figure for family or friend money is 15%, so the claim depends on the younger-cohort subgroup.[2][4][5]
Sources
5 sources: 5 not rated
- 1Helping the next generation become homeownersml.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 2Survey: Down Payment Help on Current Home - LendingTreelendingtree.com · not rated · cited for: context
- 3How Parents Are Helping Children Buy Homes in 2026cnbc.com · not rated · cited for: context
- 4More young buyers rely on down payment help | Florida Realtorsfloridarealtors.org · not rated · cited for: context
- 5Parents, grandparents step in as down payment backers ...housingwire.com · not rated · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post
Related claims
- Half of parents with grown children provide regular financial help for rent, groceries, cell phones, health care, or car payments.True
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