FAFSA: what is the "home you live in?"

Paying for College FAFSA & CSS Profile
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Unique situation, and I don’t know whether to include our home as an asset on FAFSA. The form doesn’t elaborate on the definition of “home you live in”.

We own a home. The property has been in the family for 6 generations. We bought it in March 2020 from my grandmother’s estate. We moved in immediately, and lived there without interruption for a year.

Since we bought in March 2020, school went completely online for a year because of covid, so my daughter remained enrolled in her previous school district, which is a couple of counties over, about 65 miles away. The school district waived the usual residency requirements, so this was allowed.

This year, we are staying mainly in a 900 sq foot rented apartment next to her high school in the old county, so she can finish out her senior year without changing school districts. It’s an expensive lifestyle but worth the sacrifice to us, and we will be able to drop the apartment to free up funds in our budget to pay for college.

We of course still own the house. We don’t rent it out, and it contains the vast majority of of our furniture, clothes and belongings. We are at the house at least once a week, and sometimes for weeks at a time. We get all of our mail there, are registered to vote there, keep multiple vehicles there. Spend all our free time there. Mow the grass there. Spend holidays and have parties there. It is very much still our home.

Bottomline: This was no question is was the home we lived in in 2020. It will be again no question in 2022 after graduation. In 2021, we live in both the home and a tiny rented apartment as a life choice. We do spend more nights in the apartment than the house right now, because school is in session.

We don’t have much equity anyways, so it would be fairly inconsequential to declare it as an asset. But it’s also truly our family home, and the only home we own, which seem to be the intention of FASA to exclude.

What would you do?

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The house you own is the home you need to list. This is your permanent home, and you are not treating it as an investment property. The apartment is a temporary fix to a temporary problem (the need to live in a particular school district until the end of the school year).

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You have gotten lost in the weeds! As @kelsmom said, your home is your home is your home. That you are staying other places for varying periods is immaterial- and you are not the only ones! people with a 2nd house that they visit for holidays, people on short-term contracts/work assignments in other cities / countires, people who live in remote areas that keep a pied à terre in the city- there are lots of reasons that people have more than one address.

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The home you live in is the home you own, for the purposes of the FAFSA. Some schools exclude the home you live in their consideration of assets.

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@compmom the FAFSA never asks for the equity in the primary residence. This poster is asking about the FAFSA.

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I also wondered how this was coming into play for FAFSA. I thought maybe OP was concerned that they would need to report the value of the home they inherited as an asset, but based on the information provided, they do not need to do that.

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Agree…that was their question. But my response simply addresses that the primary residence is never considered on the FAFSA.

And you clarified that this house they own is easily viewed as their primary residence.

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My question as it relates to FAFSA is, is this the “home I live in” and therebybI can exclude it as an asset, or do I live in a rented apartment since I have spent more nights there in this calendar year? If so then it’s not the home I live in, and I have to declare the equity as an asset.

Thanks for all the feedback - helpful to get out of my own head on this one!

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It’s the home you live in for FAFSA. I worked in financial aid until a couple years ago. The purpose of the question is to determine whether the house should be considered an investment asset. It should not be.

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It seems the OP is worried that if they list they property as their home, it may generate a higher EFC. Based on what you just said, I think it should be made clear to the OP that if they list the apartment as their primary residence and FAFSA is made aware of the house they own, that house may then be deemed to be an “asset” instead of a “home.” And if the house is deemed an asset instead of their primary home, it may result in a higher EFC.

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Yes - I am the OP and this is my exact quandary. Is it my home, and then not listable? Or is the apartment on a technicality my “home”, and my house an asset? I just want to do the right thing, I am less worried about any minor effect on our EFC.

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@msmi762 please read the responses from Kelsmom. She worked as a financial aid officer at more than one college.

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