<p>I guess I'll have to estimate my home value for the PROFILE form. I can call for a realtor's estimate but it may be inflated to encourage me to sell... which I don't want to do. I could call the city and ask for the appraised value which might be low, as compared to the market value. I don't want to put down an amount to low as I might be perceived as low-balling it to get more FINAID, and I'm sure they'll check. But I don't want to put down a price that is too high as I may be negatively impacting the FINAID package. Any ideas anybody?</p>
<p>Can you check online for comps in your neighborhood? I would reduce it a little b/c the market is not that great right now so something that sold a year ago might get less today. That coupled with your tax assessment appraisel should give you a decent estimate of your homes value. One being low and the other being high. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Just figure something realistic out from zillow.com or realtor.com; figure out how much similar houses in your area sell for…zillow will get you the price of the last neighbors to sell. Keep the documents you used to arrive at the figure in case you are questioned. As long as it is an educated good faith estimate you are fine.</p>
<p>I don’t know about your neck of the woods, but when we check online it shows the taxable value and the market value (which in this area is usually about 80% of the true market value). You can always print it if they want proof.</p>
<p>If you go to this link on finaid.org, you can calculate the current market value for your home, using the Federal Housing Index.</p>
<p><a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid;
<p>I think you may still need to adjust for market conditions in your community.</p>
<p>Just a note–we found zillow.com to be inflated figures, compared to recent sales in our area. I’m with J’adoube…if you can get a published “market value” from your county, that’s hard evidence that you can use to back up your claim. We’ve found in the world of real estate, that there are a billion different appraisal methods, and people use different ones that address their needs the best. Obviously in this case, you’ll want the most conservative figure you can reasonable justify.</p>
<p>I found zillow not to be acurate either. It’s best to be conservative. House prices could go down 30-40% according to this report.</p>
<p>[Scarcity</a>, cost of jumbo mortgages portend big home-price drops - MarketWatch](<a href=“Latest News - News Viewer - MarketWatch”>Jumbo loans still scarce in high-cost areas<!-- --> - MarketWatch)</p>
<p>I asked this a couple weeks ago, and ended up using sjmom’s recommendation of the federal housing calculator (above), and added 10%. I put a note to that effect in the explanations box at the end. I think Zillow and similar sites are likely to show inflated values, given what the market seems to be doing.</p>
<p>By the way, when I said online I meant the County Tax collector’s website.</p>
<p>Excellent! Some good links to follow. My neighbor has had her house on the market for 7 months. I’m embarrassed to ask what her asking price is. I’m sure it is a sore subject. Can’t wait for our town to raise the mill rate now that prices have leveled off or are falling. I’ll get all the documentation I can. What will the colleges do if folks can’t pull money out of thier houses as they’ve been doing during the boom? Any guesses… Hard to pony up 45-50k a year without involving home equity.</p>
<p>I’ve always have a home equity line just for emergency. It’s a good idea to have one when one still have a job, because banks don’t lend money to you when you don’t have one. I have my credit line a while back before the runup on home equity. Not sure what is the credit situation now.</p>
<p>There is another website like zillow called realestateabc.com. Its values are quite different than what zillow has on our home.</p>
<p>Zillow.com and reasestateabc.com have almost identical values for my house.</p>
<p>I use the Tax assessors figures. They are fairly accurate for my neighborhood.</p>
<p>zillow has my house at 106k realestateabc has it at 200k.</p>
<p>HMMM.</p>
<p>zillow has the house i want to buy at 195k. realestateabc has it at 188k. it was listed for 225k until it recently was dropped to 200k.</p>
<p>Sounds like they both know what they’re talking about, at least some of the time. They’re only tools, to be used with other tools.</p>
<p>Here’s a hint: Don’t estimate high. Here’s another hint, as long as it is a credible number (i.e. not half of what zillow or the count assessor says) you are likely to be OK. </p>
<p>Estimating real estate values is never an exact science. Only buyers set prices, and there aren’t a lot of them around right now…</p>
<p>Texas is required by law to appraise at market value, QED.</p>
<p>Realestateabc shows a value about $100,000 higher than Zillow. Based on other comps, Zillow is still a little high (maybe $25k).</p>
<p>bandit_Tx</p>
<p>If you believe texas assessors are accurate, go for it. But try to sell a house for its assessment in a declining market and watch the laughs.</p>
<p>Of course I’m being sarcastic, but consider that tax assessment is a political compromise aimed balancing the need to raise property tax revenues with the need to keep from offending too many tax payers, compounded by the need to spend as little as can be spent. As a result, IMHO, the relationship between a Texas style “market value” assessment and true market value is accidental…</p>