can someone explain the process? Thanks!
I’ve heard of using Zillow. I’m not even sure if I’m spelling it right. Sorry.
I think one can also use the value of the assessment that property taxes are based on.
Nope. The property assessment for taxes is usually not accurate. First, it sometimes isn’t current. Second…that is a %age of the value of,the last townwide valuation of your house.
You are supposed to use the amount you could reasonably sell your house for. Some folks think Zillow is OK. Some might actually get a real estate person to estimate.
@thumper1 , thanks for the correction. I thought I read that here.
I just use Zillow and print out a pdf for record. Itmay be not very accurate but it is an acceptable non bias method. Tax assessment is not current. If you have your property very recently refinanced, you may have more accurate assessment information available.
In my area, tax value is assessed at 50% of the property value. The latest assessment in 2017 is only around 40% of the current market value, so it is 20% off.
Thank you everyone. We recently had home renovations to correct an incorrectly installed 1960s bathroom, which was only recently discovered via rot and damage . So I’d be reasonably sure my home is not worth market value.
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That’s sad. You may want to get an appraisal but the cost for that may be not justified with the potential difference you may get from the financial aid.
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I’ll be filling out my first FAFSA this year, and have been reading up on financial aid. In the book I’m reading (Paying for College without sacrificing your retirement" by Tim Higgins, he suggested the federal housing index calculator at FinAid.org. It’s hard to find, here’s a link http://www.finaid.org/calculators/federalhousing.phtml
Zillow here is laughable, it depends on your state’s reporting records for prices paid. If my house was worth what ZIllow guess at I would sell now LOL. Even the tax price overestimates value.
Thanks @DoinResearch , very helpful!
That calculator values all houses purchased after 2007 as the original purchase price. For my house in California, tha’t shockingly inaccurate. There’s no way a school would accept that estimate if I put it in my profile. I’d use that calculator with extreme caution.
@Sybylla I guess you live in a slow market area and Zillow has to rely on old data. In my area that properties got sold within a week or two after posting, the Zillow price estimates are pretty close to the current market value (i.e. the current listed price for units for sale and recently sold units within the area). When the market is very active and much more data is available, the estimation is more accurate.
But prices don’t have to be reported in my state, so it is guesswork. What I do know is that every month someone tries to list their house on the local streets for the zillow prices and then it gets taken off the market (last house was within 3 weeks). Dunno what they do with that data. We have a really slow pocket market in a hotter bigger market for sure.
That 2007 fedaid pricing for here is the stuff of fairy tales too, that guestimation is well over.
We did use Zillow because they had a number of recent sales in our neighborhood. The CSS asks for this info but some schools care about home equity when they calculate FA and others don’t. Some consider the area of the country you live as well realizing that in some areas a house worth $500K is a very basic older unrenovated home and in other areas it’s among the nicest homes.
I’m looking at recent sales and the tax assessment value and in our case, they seem similar and lower than our purchase price by a bit, because we bought when prices were high.
Market value is, in the simplest terms, what your home is worth. Market value takes into consideration any deficiencies or extra features, and the market value of the home will be adjusted accordingly.