<p>I read the article as it was a family that had home equity of $800k, but had suffered a job loss and had very low income for THAT year.</p>
<p>I don’t think that is an unusual scenario at all, especially in a high real estate state like NJ. It was probably a guy who had been an executive making $200k, bought a home in the 1990’s for $300k but had increased in value to $1M and so has $800k in equity now. Some schools care about the equity, some don’t, so you are going to get different EFCs.</p>