This occurs far more often than you expect. When I first started in Tech 15 years ago in a major urban environment - I was extremely surprised to see young prof

This occurs far more often than you expect. When I first started in Tech 15 years ago in a major urban environment - I was extremely surprised to see young professionals living in housing that I viewed as utterly unaffordable. For a time I assumed that I must have a missunderstanding of the labor market, and that the designer/engineer/assistant at company X must make substantially more than I did as a software engineer at company Y. Over time, I noticed this was not atypical. Many professionals in dense urban areas use familial connections to purchase a home when they are ~22-25 through one of several arrangements ranging from. "Buy me the house now, and I'll buy you out when I can afford a mortgage", or "Give me a downpayment now, and I'll cover mortgage", or "provide downpayment, you hold onto equity, I cover mortgage and we split marginal equity appreciation". I had a very silly conversation at a FAANG team event where the principal engineer and I were discussing finally being able to purchase a home after working for 10+ years. A junior engineer chimed in earnestly asking why we didn't have a rich uncle lend us the downpayment money :shrug: In 2024, housing in urban areas is still appreciating at 8% per year in desirable markets - on a 1 MM house, this is easily more than the average income for the city.