41% are supporting both their children and their parents at the same time – and most aren’t clear how the home equity they’ve built could help.
TEMPE, Ariz., July 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — A new national survey* commissioned by Unlock, a leading provider of home equity agreements (HEAs), reveals that homeowners who are also parents are navigating a financial squeeze that goes well beyond the typical cost-of-living pressures. Caring simultaneously for children and aging parents – a dynamic coining the term “sandwich generation” – is forcing homeowners to make trade-offs with real, long-lasting consequences.
The squeeze is coming from both directions
The dual caregiving burden is hitting hard in both directions: a staggering 41% of homeowner parents are also financially supporting their own parents in some way, with roughly 4 in 10 saying summer childcare costs (42%) and school-year childcare (41%) are adding a significant financial burden. More than half (56%) say caregiving costs are affecting their long-term financial plans.
“Behind every statistic about the sandwich generation is a real person making painful tradeoffs,” said Michael Micheletti, chief communications and marketing officer at Unlock. “A parent who didn’t see a doctor this year. A family living with a leak they can’t afford to fix. A couple quietly closing the door on having another child. These aren’t data points; they’re what it looks like when financial pressures reshape people’s lives.
Today’s expenses, tomorrow’s trade-offs
More than seven in ten (71%) homeowner parents say today’s expenses are preventing them from building future wealth. That financial pressure is shaping major life decisions:
- 66% would send their children to a better school if they could afford it;
- 66% believe paying for college will reduce their retirement savings;
- 47% are delaying home repairs or improvements;
- 43% have decided not to expand their families even though they’d like to.
Among homeowners without a mortgage, 30% still strongly agree that today’s expenses are holding them back from building wealth. That’s nearly as many as the 36% who still carry one, signaling that the culprit isn’t a monthly mortgage payment; it’s everything else.
The equity is there. So is the opportunity to explore it.
Yet American homeowners collectively hold nearly $35 trillion in home equity, averaging $274,000 for a typical U.S. homeowner – and many homeowner parents don’t realize they may be able to access it.
“There’s a significant gap between what homeowners have built and what they believe is available to them,” continued Micheletti. “Forty percent of the people we surveyed don’t know how much equity they have, and 39% don’t think they’d qualify for any option to tap into it. That’s worth talking about, regardless of what they ultimately decide to do with it.”
*METHODOLODY: Unlock commissioned Atomik Research to conduct an online survey of 1,500 homeowner parents of children throughout the United States from May 28 to June 1, 2026. The margin of error is ±2.5 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. Atomik Research, part of 4mediagroup, is a creative market research agency.
Home equity agreements are offered by Unlock Home Equity Solutions Inc. (NMLS# 2657081) in certain states: www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org. Visit Unlock.com/licenses for more information.
About Unlock
Founded in 2020, Unlock Technologies is a Tempe, Arizona-based financial technology company providing products and services that help consumers solve financial challenges and improve their financial health. The company’s flagship product is its home equity agreement, a financing option for homeowners who want to access the equity they have built, without adding monthly payments or having to refinance or sell their home.
Media contact: Allison Ferré, Communications and Public Relations Director, allison.ferre@unlock.com
SOURCE Unlock Technologies