Beggars can’t be choosers — unless it’s your wedding day.
Many newlyweds are opting out of traditional cash-fund gifts and adding the option of helping to pay for a home purchase instead.
Wedding resource websites like The Knot and Zillow Home Loans found that 55% more couples are adding a “home fund” to their wedding registry than in 2018.
Couples are adding the controversial request to their wishlists with the dream of starting their new chapter as husband and wife in a house they can own.
A recent Zola survey by wedding experts revealed that nearly 87% of couples planned on adding a cash fund to their registry — with more than 37% planning to put the money toward a new home.
“The whole idea of giving a wedding gift is to invest and celebrate someone’s future together as a couple, and I don’t think there’s any more profound way to do that than contributing to the new home that they would share together,” Allison Cullman, the Vice president of brand marketing and strategy at Zola, told the New York Times, adding that money asks are “becoming less taboo.”
Even though, in some cases, it wouldn’t cover the full down payment, it still helps enough to get them further than without the surplus funds.
With interest rates dropping compared to previous years, couples are eager to purchase a home but struggle because many homeowners resist omitting lower rates, creating a rate-lock effect.
Amanda Pendleton, personal finance expert for Zillow Home Loans, revealed that between 2018 and 2022, “first-time buyers were at least twice as likely to report putting gift funds toward their down payment.”
Pendleton said that in 2023, 43% reported gift funds from friends and family as the source of at least part of their housing goal.
“I think people are more inclined to give a gift to something specific where they’ll be able to see the outcome of it versus when it feels like an abyss,” Cullman added.
