Down Payment Help Isn't a Backup Plan Anymore — It's the Plan. Here's What Southern NH Buyers Actually Need to Know.

Let's start with a number that surprised me when I first saw it: 40% of homeowners who bought a home in 2026 got financial help with their down payment.

Not 4%. Forty.

That's almost half of every buyer who walked into a closing this year. And it's up from 35% just two years ago.

If you're a first-time buyer in Southern NH and you've been feeling like everyone else has it figured out and you're the only one needing a little help to make it work — I want you to read this twice. You are not the exception. You are roughly the average.

And honestly, the people I think need to hear this most aren't even the buyers — it's their parents.

What the new data actually says

LendingTree just released their 2026 Mortgage Down Payment Survey, and the numbers reframe the whole conversation about how homeownership works now.

A few stats worth sitting with:

• 40% of homeowners received financial help with the down payment on their current home (up from 35% in 2023).

• 78% of Gen Z homeowners got help. For millennials, it's 56%. For Gen X, 35%. For boomers, 12%.

• Income doesn't really change the picture. 43% of buyers earning under $30,000 got help — and 42% of buyers earning over $100,000 got help too. Almost identical.

• Only 23% of buyers put down a traditional 20% or more. 51% put down less than 20%. 16% put down nothing at all.

• 35% of buyers who got help say they could not have bought when they did without it. For women specifically, that jumps to 44%.

A few things jump out at me here.

First, the 20% down payment thing — the rule we all grew up hearing — is officially the exception now, not the rule. Only about 1 in 4 buyers is doing it that way. The "you have to put 20% down or you're doing it wrong" idea is decades behind where the actual market is.

Second, this isn't a low-income story. It's a generation story. The big shift isn't poor people needing more help — it's the cost of starter homes outpacing what a single income, or even a dual income, can save up in a reasonable timeframe. So families are figuring it out together.

And third — and this is the one I want to highlight for everyone reading from Manchester, Bedford, Derry, Hooksett, Concord, and all the towns I work in — most buyers getting help have no idea there's a whole second category of help they're missing.

Where the help is actually coming from

When buyers get assistance with a down payment, here's where it's coming from, according to the survey:

• 48% receive it as a gift (no repayment required)

• 28% receive it as a loan (family loan, typically)

• 25% receive a combination of gift and loan

• The most common source: parents — especially for Gen Z (27%) and millennial (24%) buyers

• Some buyers tap inheritance or trust funds (11% overall, 24% of Gen Z)

And then there's this number: only 6% of buyers used formal down payment assistance programs.

Six percent.

That stat is the one I cannot get out of my head. Because in New Hampshire, we have some of the most genuinely useful, real-money down payment assistance programs in the country — and most buyers, and most parents helping their kids buy, have never heard of them.

The NH Housing programs most buyers don't know about

NH Housing (the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority) is the state agency that runs first-time buyer programs across the state. The programs are real, they're current, and they're available through participating lenders right now. Here are the ones that matter most:

Home Flex Plus

This one pairs an FHA, VA, or USDA loan with up to 4% of your loan amount in combined down payment and closing cost assistance. The assistance comes as a second mortgage at 0% interest — and after four years, it's completely forgiven. You don't pay it back unless you sell, refinance, or move out before that four-year mark. Income limits go up to $176,200.

Home Preferred Plus

Pairs a conventional loan (Fannie Mae HomeReady-style financing) with 2–4% in cash assistance, plus discounted private mortgage insurance. Great for buyers whose income lines up better with conventional financing than government-backed loans.

Home First / First Plus

A bond-financed mortgage with rate-advantaged pricing and optional fixed-dollar down payment assistance — $5,000, $10,000, or $15,000 in cash. The cash assistance is secured by a second mortgage with 0% interest, no monthly payments, and a 30-year term. It's only due back if you sell, refinance, file for bankruptcy, or stop using the home as your primary residence.

The First Generation bonus

This one's wild and most people don't know it exists. If you, your parents, and your grandparents have never owned a home — you may qualify for an additional $10,000 on top of any of the above. Specifically designed for buyers breaking the homeownership cycle in their family.

A few important pieces to know:

• All of these require completing a homebuyer education course (free, online, takes a few hours).

• You need to use a participating lender — the list is long and includes a lot of NH-based and national lenders.

• "First-time buyer" through NH Housing means you haven't owned a home in the last three years. So even if you bought before, you may still qualify.

• These programs can often be stacked with gift funds from family — meaning if your parents are kicking in, and you also qualify for, say, Home Flex Plus, you can use both. That's not double-dipping. That's smart financing.

What this means for parents

If you're a parent thinking about helping your adult child buy their first home — first of all, you're in good company. 46% of Americans expect to help a child or relative buy a home in the future. Among parents with young kids, it's 75%.

But here's the conversation I'd want to have before any money changes hands:

Is the help a gift or a loan? It matters a lot, both for the buyer's mortgage qualification and for how the next ten years feel between you and your kid. Lenders treat gift funds differently than loaned funds. A documented gift letter is straightforward; an informal "you'll pay us back when you can" can create real friction with underwriting and with the family relationship.

Are you helping with the down payment, the closing costs, or the monthly payment? Each one solves a different problem. Sometimes the better move is helping with closing costs so the buyer can keep more of their savings as a reserve cushion. Sometimes it's the down payment so they hit a better loan-to-value ratio. The answer depends on the buyer's full financial picture.

Have you talked to a lender together? Even one good conversation with a lender — before you've picked out a house, before anyone's emotionally attached — can completely change what's possible. They can show you the real numbers based on your kid's income, credit, and the help you're considering. And if the buyer qualifies for an NH Housing program, the family gift might be doing less of the heavy lifting than you thought.

What I tell first-time buyers when this comes up

Here's where I land on this, every single time:

Getting help with a down payment isn't a weakness. It isn't cheating. It isn't something to hide on your application. The data is overwhelming — most of your peers are doing the same thing. Lenders see gift funds and DPA second mortgages every single day. None of this is unusual.

What is unusual — and what makes the biggest difference in what's actually possible — is knowing all of your options before you start house-hunting.

That looks like:

1. Talk to a lender who knows the NH Housing programs (not every lender does — ask).

2. Find out if you qualify for Home Flex Plus, Home Preferred Plus, or First/First Plus.

3. If you also have family help available, figure out how to combine the two.

4. Then start looking at homes — knowing what you can actually do.

Doing it in that order is what separates "I think I might be able to buy something" from "here's the offer I'm submitting Monday."

If you want to talk through what your real options look like in this market — whether you're the buyer, or the parent thinking about helping — I'm happy to walk you through it. There's no pressure on the other end of that conversation. Just clearer numbers.

You can call or text me at 603-519-3310.

The 40% number isn't a problem to fix. It's just how homeownership works now. The buyers who feel most in control of the process aren't the ones doing it alone — they're the ones who understood early which kinds of help were available, and used the ones that fit.