A guide for parents
A Parent's Guide to Helping Your Kids Buy a Home
This may be your first, but it's certainly not ours.
Why this guide
There's more than one way to help your kid buy a home — and the way you structure it matters as much as the money itself. Gift, loan, co-sign, co-own: each one plays out differently for your kid, for you, and for your estate.
Real estate builds wealth when it's done right. We believe that, and we've lived it: two of Rebecca's three daughters own homes. This guide walks through your options, how title can be held in Oregon, and the tax questions to take to your accountant or financial planner before anyone signs anything.
Our expertise is finding the right home, negotiating it well, and getting it to the closing table. Title, tax, and estate decisions belong with the professionals who specialize in them. That doesn't mean you're on your own. We want you to understand what's at stake, know who to call, and walk into those conversations with the right questions already in hand.
Six ways parents help
Most families use one of these, or a mix. None is "best" — the right one depends on your kid's income, your finances, and what you want to happen to the home down the road.
01 Gift the down payment
How it works: You give your kid money toward the down payment or closing costs. No repayment.
Watch-outs: Lenders usually want a signed gift letter and a paper trail for the funds. Gifts over the federal annual exclusion ($19,000 per person in 2026) mean filing a gift tax return.
02 Loan the money
How it works: You lend the down payment, with or without a formal note.
Watch-outs: The lender may count your loan as your kid's debt. A family loan should be documented and may need a minimum IRS interest rate to avoid being treated as a gift.
03 Co-sign or co-borrow
How it works: You go on the mortgage with your kid so they qualify.
Watch-outs: You're on the hook for the whole loan. It shows up on your credit and can affect your own borrowing.
04 Co-own the home
How it works: You and your kid both go on title and share ownership.
Watch-outs: How you hold title decides who gets what if someone dies, divorces or wants out (see the next section).
05 Buy it and rent to them
How it works: You buy the home, your kid lives there and pays you rent.
Watch-outs: You're the landlord — with the taxes, insurance and rules that come with it. The loan type and rates differ for non-owner-occupied homes.
06 Share the equity
How it works: You put money in now in exchange for a share of the home's future value.
Watch-outs: Put the terms in writing: what happens when the home sells, is refinanced, or your kid wants to buy you out.
One more — Buying near where your kid goes to college. Instead of four years of rent, the family owns a home that can house your kid (and roommates who pay rent). Talk to your lender and accountant about how it's financed and taxed.
How to hold title in Oregon
Who goes on title is one of the most important decisions in this process, and it isn't always your kid. Some parents own the home themselves and let their kid live there. Others hold it in a trust, put it solely in their kid's name, or share ownership. Each path has different implications for taxes, liability, and your estate, and we walk through them in the sections that follow.
If you and your kid both go on title, the words on the deed decide what happens later. In Oregon, two or more owners are tenants in common by default, unless the deed clearly says otherwise (ORS 93.180).
Sole ownership
What it means: One party is on title: your kid alone (your help was a gift or a loan), or you alone as the parents.
When someone dies: The home goes through that owner's estate.
Tenants in common
What it means: Each owner holds a share. Shares can be unequal (say, 70/30).
When someone dies: Each owner's share passes through their own estate or will.
Tenants in common with right of survivorship
What it means: Co-owners, and the survivor takes the whole property. The deed must say this clearly and expressly.
When someone dies: The surviving owner gets it, outside probate.
Tenancy by the entirety
What it means: For married couples only; Oregon's default for spouses on the same deed.
When someone dies: The surviving spouse gets it.
LLC
What it means: The home is owned by a company you and your kid own.
When someone dies: Handled by the LLC's operating agreement. Financing is harder.
Trust
What it means: A trust holds title under terms you set.
When someone dies: Passes under the trust's terms, outside probate.
Oregon also allows a transfer on death deed, which names who gets the home when the owner dies (ORS 93.975). Title is a legal decision: have an Oregon real estate or estate planning attorney review it before you close.
Why to call your accountant or financial planner first
$1M — Oregon estate tax threshold. Oregon taxes estates worth $1 million or more — one of the lowest thresholds in the country. With a paid-off Portland home and a retirement account, plenty of families are over that line without realizing it.
- The threshold is $1 million, and it hasn't moved since 2011. It's not adjusted for inflation (Oregon Department of Revenue).
- Rates run from 10% to 16% on the taxable estate (Mercer Advisors).
- No portability between spouses. Each spouse has their own $1 million exemption, and an unused one doesn't pass to the survivor (Collier Law).
- Oregon has no gift tax, which makes lifetime gifts — like helping with a down payment — part of the planning conversation. Ask how gifts made shortly before death are treated.
- Change isn't coming soon. A 2026 bill to raise the threshold (SB 1511) died, and the initiative to repeal the tax didn't make the November 2026 ballot (Track Town Law, Oregon Capital Chronicle).
Federal rules matter too. In 2026 you can give up to $19,000 per person without filing a gift tax return, and the federal lifetime exemption is $15 million per person (Morgan Lewis). Federal taxes and Oregon's threshold are both considered in the planning process.
The tax picture later. How you help also changes the tax picture later. Giving a home (or a share of one) while you're alive can be treated differently for capital gains than leaving it in your estate. That's a question for your accountant, not your agent.
Questions to bring to each advisor
Take this list to the meetings. Check them off as you go.
Your accountant or financial planner
- Is our estate over Oregon's $1 million threshold, or could it be?
- Is a gift or a loan better for us, tax-wise?
- If we loan the money, what interest rate and paperwork do we need?
- Do we need to file a gift tax return?
- How does gifting a share of a home now compare to leaving it in our estate, for capital gains?
- How does this fit with our retirement plan and what we're doing for our other kids?
Your estate planning attorney
- How should title be held, and what happens if one of us dies?
- Does our will or trust need to change?
- Should we use a transfer on death deed, a trust or an LLC?
- If we co-own with our kid, what happens in a divorce or if someone wants out?
Your lender
- What paperwork do you need for a gift?
- How would a family loan affect our kid's qualifying?
- If I co-sign, how does it affect my own borrowing?
- What loan options fit a parent-owned or co-owned home?
How our team helps
We help your family think through the options before you're under contract, then find the right home, negotiate it, and get it closed. We work alongside your accountant, planner, attorney and lender so everyone's plan lines up.
Your next step: Call us and tell us what you're trying to make work.
Jill Dehlin — Broker, OR + WA
M: 503-475-4991 · jill@sellingportlandrealestate.com
Rebecca Green — Founder · Broker, OR
M: 541-728-1143 · rebecca@sellingportlandrealestate.com
Disclaimer: This guide is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Tax rules and figures are as of September 2026 and can change. Talk to a licensed attorney, CPA or financial planner about your family's situation.
Sources: Oregon Department of Revenue: Estate transfer tax · Collier Law: Efforts to raise Oregon's estate tax exemption · ORS 93.180: Forms of tenancy · Track Town Law: SB 1511 failed · ORS 93.975: Transfer on death deed form · Oregon Capital Chronicle: Initiatives that won't make the November ballot · Mercer Advisors: Oregon estate tax · Morgan Lewis: 2026 gift and estate tax exemption amounts
