Home sweet tax loophole. (Getty)

Graduation season just commenced, which means gifts for grads. In most of the country, that’ll be a new MacBook, maybe a car. Here in Manhattan, it means another Times trend piece about parents buying a $1.15 million condo—complete with rock climbing wall and spa—just for the kids.

Why would they do such a thing? Let’s let mom and dad explain:

• A mother who is listed with her son on the proprietary lease for a studio that closed for less than $265,000: “With the interest rate and the price that we found, we couldn’t not do it.”
• A dad who purchased a $250,000 studio in a co-op building with a doorman, for which his daughter will pay just the maintenance fee: “The whole process was long and painful, but I believe it was worth it, because we know she is living in a safe and good place.”
• The dad behind that $1.15 million climbing-and-cleansing condo: “We didn’t buy this place for Olivia. We bought it as a family place.”
• A dad who “took advantage of the gift exclusion,” buying his twins an $800,000 two-bedroom apartment to sneak under the $1 million cap: “It was a great price and it was a way for us financially to give them money without having to die.”

efoxhall@observer.com