BOOMERS TO THE RESCUE

THEY'RE SLOWLY TRANSFERRING TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO THEIR NEW YORK CITY CHILDREN, ONE DOWN PAYMENT OR VIA CAROTA TAB AT A TIME.

- Madeline Leung Coleman

THE FIRST TIME it happens, you're surprised. One day, your friend with the roommates and the wobbly employment and the busted phone-they buy an apartment. They tell you they're moving, then they admit they're buying, and suddenly you're standing in the living room they own. It's not that you'd never talked about money, if you count the years spent passing $17 back and forth on Venmo; it's just that you thought you were on the same track. That when you said "broke," you understood it to mean the same thing. It's as if you were both paddling aimlessly in New York's sea of downward mobility when your friend burst out of the water and stumbled onto the beach. The source of the apartment is not a mystery. It's parent money.

The Great Wealth Transfer by the Numbers Baby-boomers hold half of the nation's asset wealth.

Only about one in three adults under age 43 manage to support themselves without any financial help from their parents.

Nearly half of U.S. parents support their adult children financially.

Last year, allcash buyers accounted for more than half of Manhattan's housing sales.