Reply to Financial aid if you own a house but don’t live in it

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It counts as an asset and will hurt your chances of FA. You can sell it or borrow against it.
Unfortunately, you'd be better off living in ithe house you own because some colleges give generous exemptions for the value of the house you actually live in. [/quote]

What happens to other families who have periods where they can’t live in their homes?  Children of Foreign service Officers, or people who need to live near transplant centers because they have a child who is on a waiting list, or whatever reason. (Neither of those is my actual reason but it’s similar in that it’s truly not a choice). It seems unfair that everyone else can shelter hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of assets and we can’t, because I will need those assets in retirement or an emergency as much as anyone else.
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+1 Perhaps hire a financial aid counselor.  Your situation isn't the norm, but if you have a lot of equity in a house, yes, you have to report it and yes, that will be an indication of wealth.  And not sure how people are sheltering hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of assets legally on a financial aid form...[/quote]

If you have hundreds of thousands of dollars in equity in your house that you live in that’s sheltered.  It’s not taken into account on your financial
aid application.

We are a solidly middle class family, but we bought our house 15 years ago, so between 15 years of mortgage payments and 15 years of appreciation I own a large percentage of it.  It just seems unfair that other families whose financial situations might be identical other than the fact that they live in their house would get significantly more aid.[/quote]

I highly doubt you are solidly middle class.  Many who claim that make $150-400K.  OP sounds lower income so they would probably qualify regardless of the house.[/quote]

I am OP.  The post you quoted is also me.  I thought it was clear but I should have said.  Between my income and the survivor benefits my kids get our family income is around 100K, which is below the median for a family our size in the state where we live.

I have about $400K equity.  If I leave that out of the net price calculators they say we would get need based aid at our state schools.

[/quote]

I would hope your child would get aid.  Apply around to a bunch of colleges and see.  $400K equity in a house is very different than $400K savings with retirement and lots of other stuff.  Remember here people call themselves middle class with 2-4 times that income.  Just explain the situation that you bought the house married, spouse passed away, went to live with family as they needed a caretaker and kept the house as you will need to move back into it one day when relative passes.[/quote]

Based on? Did OP say what assets exist other than the home? I know she said what her income/survivor benefits equal…but what about other assets? [/quote]

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