Although to you the idea of buying a home may seem like a fuzzy, faraway dream, the numbers show that thousands of young people just like you are in fact doing just that. What is their secret?

THEIR SECRET, REVEALED: Money from parents.

We can only pray that the knowledge that a large portion of young people who are buying real estate are assisted by gifts from parents will in some small way alleviate the overwhelming sense of inferiority and hopelessness you feel when you contemplate the fact that young people are buying real estate. Bloomberg reports:

Last year, 27 percent of those purchasing a home for the first time received a cash gift from relatives or friends to come up with a down payment, according to data from the National Association of Realtors. That's up from 24 percent in 2012 and matches the highest share since the group began keeping records in 2009.

If you would like to feel worse instead of better, you may choose to contemplate instead the 73% of first time home buyers who did not need any sort of financial assistance in order to come up with a down payment for a home that will one day bankrupt them. What do they have that you don't?

Fifty-four percent of first-time buyers in 2013 said their purchases were delayed because the burden of student loans prevented them from saving enough for a down payment, according to the NAR survey.

Hm.

"Education is priceless and renters can always call a landlord to fix the broken toilet," you tell yourself, as a tear trickles down your cheek, and then freezes, in your poorly heated rental apartment.

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