Co-signing an $800K mortgage at 22: what r/personalfinance says
As seen on the 24/7 Wall St. homepage on November 1, 2026.
Don't do it. Do not co-sign on anyone else's debt ever, except perhaps for your own children for their first used car, if you already have enough in the bank to pay for it outright!
A 22-year-old earning $40,000 part time is weighing co-signing an $800,000 mortgage, and co-signers owe the full debt while losing access to their own first mortgage. If a lender already said no to the borrower, that is the risk judgment you are being asked to override.
Continue ReadingShow less
A 22-year-old full-time computer science student on r/personalfinance was asked by his parents to co-sign a nearly $800,000 Sacramento mortgage because his self-employed father cannot qualify for the loan.
A co-signer is legally responsible for the entire debt, and carrying that mortgage would count against the poster's own borrowing capacity. One commenter noted he would lose access to first-time homebuyer programs and be unable to qualify for a separate mortgage.
Sponsored
The top comment gave a blunt verdict: do not co-sign anyone else's debt, with the only narrow exception being a child's first used car, and only then if you already have the cash to cover it outright. Another pointed out that the bank has already decided the borrower is too risky to lend to independently, and co-signing overrides that professional judgment.
The poster updated the thread to say he would be on the title of the home as well as the loan, and that his parents envision it as a family and generational property. He also flagged that most tech jobs in his field sit in the Santa Clara and San Francisco region, making a Sacramento home an obstacle to his career. The consensus matched his own instinct: the commitment would severely restrict his financial future.