Name: Chazz Levi
Hometown: New York
Chazz Levi, a real estate agent in New York with the Corcoran Group, bought apartments in pricey Manhattan for both her son and daughter.
Her daughter closed in 2010 on a co-op apartment on the Upper East Side; her son bought a Harlem condo just this past October. Levi wanted to pass along an inheritance from her mother, who recently passed away.
"I did this as an investment," said Levi. "Your kids are an investment. I didn't want to just give them cash because I thought it would just disappear. In the end, they would have nothing to show for it."
Her daughter works as an agent for the Ford Modeling agency and her son works in a recording studio days and in hotel security nights.
Even in Manhattan, where home prices held up better than most places during the bust, the housing market is more affordable than in recent years. But few people in their 20s can afford to buy apartments there.
Levi believes the purchases have had a positive impact on her kid's lives beyond the fact that they now have nice places to live.
"I think it's given them a sense of ownership and responsibility," she said. "It has ended their play time and turned them into adults."
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