Per National Association of Realtors data, roughly 22% of first-time buyers, about one in five, get down-payment help from family. Our own gut said higher. Working a high-cost Orange County clientele, where family help shows up constantly at bigger price points, we'd have guessed closer to half. The gap between those two numbers is really a story about local markets: in expensive areas, family help appears more often out of necessity, while nationally it's less common than the anecdotes suggest. The help often isn't enormous, either. For buyers in the sub-$300,000 range, the assistance we tend to see runs more like $10,000 to $15,000, a boost rather than a whole down payment. So if you're counting on or offering family help, it can absolutely tip a deal. And plenty of buyers get in without it.