<p>Just curious why Net Price Calculators ask what year you bought your house. It seems that all that should matter is how much equity you have. Any idea why they ask about year of purchase?</p>
<p>Because many schools use the federal housing index to determine current valuation based on original purchase price. See: </p>
<p><a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid; </p>
<p>&</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.fhfa.gov/DataTools/Tools/pages/hpi-calculator.aspx”>http://www.fhfa.gov/DataTools/Tools/pages/hpi-calculator.aspx</a></p>
<p>Thanks! That’s interesting and helpful to know. If I check our home on the first link, the value is 55K less than Zillow, but if I use the second link, it’s 70K MORE than Zillow. Is it possible to tell which calculator a college is using?</p>
<p>Split the difference. Zillow is typically very low around here when viewing comparable sales.</p>
<p>Ha, ha. Zillow is so optimistic around here. I’d sell my house tomorrow if i could get what Zillow says I can. I already told my good friend who is a broker that we would sign on the dotted line if could get close to that amount if she could get a buyer like that. Not a nibble for years with that on the table. </p>
<p>Schools may evaluate realestate based their own methods but will also take your values into consideration most of the time YOu have to ask the school when it comes right down to it. No benefit it offerning up a higher price for your home because they will take without a murmur. If it’s too low, they’ll questions FOR NPC, some schools that have some guidelines in place are showing what they are. If you report your house a whole lot lower than what they are, they may question the valuation. Those schools that ask year you bought the house, have something built in there to check the value so you don’t have to guess.</p>
<p>@thumper1, you say split the difference. But does the school actually use my number or do they disregard it and use the one from the calculator? We’re from AZ which was hit hard by the real estate recession and I think the value given by the fhfa.gov calculator is definitely too high. </p>
<p>Better you get a slightly higher expected contribution on the NPC than one that is too low. So, I would use the true value you think is valid for your house, but keep the one given by the calculator in mind too. That the school has that feature built into their NPC is an indication that they may use that as a guide when evaluating whether a home value reported is within the ball park, and when it comes to the nitty gritty of actual awards, that may come up. At least the school is giving you a heads up on this. But also, check what the changes in possible awards would be with your value.</p>
<p>Be aware that the NPCs are estimates only. Until you have the actual aid packages in hand, it’s not guarantee what you will get.</p>
<p>I’m wondering…and it is speculation only. For schools that use home equity in the equation…if one has owned the house for 30 years and has no equity, that would be very different than if one owned the house for two years and had no equity. </p>
<p>Yes, the first situation would be a financial train wreck.</p>
<p>@Corinthian - the calculator at Finaid.org is out of date – when you get the results it says it is using 2006 tables. basically that web site hasn’t been updated in a while-- but I included the link because the calculator is easier to use. </p>
<p>Also, I personally can’t use the other calculator because it doesn’t go back far enough for me – it only goes as far back as 1991 and my house was purchased several years earlier. </p>
<p>The colleges probably have access to something better than the online calculators. I know my d’s college relied on the federal index valuation and their numbers never agreed with whatever I was getting trying to do the same calculation at the time – but it was working in my favor (college always came up with a lower number) – so I never worried about it. That was back in the day before any colleges had NPC’s posted on their web sites. </p>
<p>I’d note that the financial aid at the “full need” colleges came in a better than I expected based on my home equity at the time my daughter applied - that was in 2006 before the market crash when home values in my area were stratospheric, so I honestly thought we would be out of luck. So in hindsight I think it’s important to have some good financial safety colleges lined up, but not be deterred too much if it looks like home equity is the major factor driving up a family’s contribution level – I think that colleges might look at a variety of factors in determining how they count the equity. </p>
<p>I agree with Calmom. I personally know folks who have used very low quicksale values for their homes on PROFILE and have not had any issues. If you peruse some “Mistakes Made on FIn AId Forms” on google, one frequently listed is that many over estimate their net home values. It pays to ask each colllege what they use or what they recommend you use in coming up with the value Some are very open to a lot of valuation methods even.</p>