<p>H & I are going to try to manually go through this dang FAFSA/CSS Profile process a year early using worksheets once our tax return is done to get more familiar with the process and see if applying for FA will really be worth it...one area that will be really difficult for us to reflect adequately is the home equity issue. Subtracting what is still owed (Mortgage + any home equity loans) from the home's value is easy enough, but how do you come up with the home value in today's world?? We live in an area where I am almost 100% sure that if we were to put our house on the market today, we would not be able to recover what we paid for it nine years ago, maybe not even recover what we still owe on it. Do you take into account home sale statistics for your area? What the home is assessed at for taxes? (PLEASE don't make me go THERE!!), bring in a realtor friend to come up with a number and document it? My D's first choice for school offers an early read to estimate FA, so I need to get these crazy ducks in a row...THANKS!!!</p>
<p>If you have a friend who's a realtor, and there are some good comps in your area, your friend should be able to come up with a ballpark selling price for your home. If you want to really be official, you can have it appraised (for $500 or so). I've also heard of people using the Zillow estimate, but this isn't available for all areas and sometimes it's inaccurate.</p>
<p>There's also a formula that takes your purchase price and adds an annual percent to come up with a fair value for CSS.</p>
<p>FinAid</a> | Calculators | Federal Housing Index Calculator</p>
<p>A really good book to help you fill out the Profile and the FAFSA correctly and to your best advantage is "How to Pay for College Without Going Broke" from The Princeton Review Series. It gives two ways to figure home value.</p>
<p>You can use "comps," homes within a few blocks of your that are similar to yours and have sold in the last few months. Take the selling price, divide by the square footage of the sold home, then multiply by the square footage of your home. Use about three comps, and average the results. Then subtract your real estate fees (6%) and the amount you would have to discount for repairs that would have to be made to sell. That would be a reasonable value.</p>
<p>Some colleges using Institutional Methodology cap the home value based on income. In that case, you would Multily Parent's Total Income (both parents) by 2.4. If that number is smaller than your calculated value above, use the smaller number. Check with the colleges you are applying to to see if they cap the value.</p>
<p>I really recommend getting the book. It will be the best $20 you will spend in the college application process. Our financial aid packages have turned out very well, and we owe a lot of that to the information in the book.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>