It's no secret that millennials have a particularly challenging relationship with the housing market. And in that sense, not being able to afford one, they don’t really even have one. When baby boomers and Gen X hit their 30s, rapid construction and suburbanization were proliferating relatively affordable housing options. For them, part of the American Dream was buying a house.

Today, it’s estimated that millennials have 35% less wealth than previous generations and a whopping 70% say they can’t simply afford a house. Our prospect is frustrating, to say the least--always renting is the only option.

So in this uncertain economy, only very few millennials were able to afford a house. Often, thanks to very exceptional circumstances like heritage, stocks from college, and so on. Read this brutally honest thread where young people share what it took them to become rare millennial homeowners.

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The thread started with a Twitter user named Josh Kruger, a Philadelphia-based writer and commentator. He asked homeowners to share how they were able to afford the down payment and closing costs for their homes.“If you are a Millennial or younger homeowner talking about homeownership, you have an ethical duty to disclose the source of your down payment and closing costs,” Josh tweeted on September 16.

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Josh added in another tweet: “If it was thanks to an inheritance or tax free gift or the like, please disclose this since many people will assume you were able to save $10,000-$30,000 over several years while paying bills too.” The author of the thread also shared that in his case, “the only reason I could afford the upfront costs was a modest, unexpected inheritance.”

He explained: “My dad secretly kept several life insurance policies, leaving them in a file I was to open only in the event of his death. It covered the downpayment and closing costs for an FHA.” Josh concluded in yet another post that “thanks to privilege, a few decisions made by my dad, and fate, I fell assbackwards into the ability to buy.” He then added that it was a “good decision but only possible due to unearned resources.”

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According to an extensive study by the rental firm Apartment List, affordability remains the biggest obstacle for millennials who want to own a home. This also means that they are forced to rent much later in life than previous generations. Many believe that millennial renters prefer this housing choice because they have more flexibility and they don’t have to deal with the hassle of home maintenance and unexpected housing costs. Many also claim that due to this reason, the renting lifestyle is much more attractive to millennials and this is why they are not so eager to become homeowners. This is not true.

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The same study from Apartment List found that the lifestyle benefits of renting remain dwarfed by the burden of affordability. Only 30% of millennials claim that they’re not yet ready to settle down with homeownership while a vast majority of 70% say they cannot afford to buy a house. Among those who do not plan to buy a house, 69% say they will always be renting because they have no other option. Just 40% cite the benefits of a flexible lifestyle, proving that the vast majority of millennials rent not because they want to but because they simply have to.