Reply to FA shouldn't go to people with 1 million dollar houses

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Reply to "FA shouldn't go to people with 1 million dollar houses"

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[quote=Anonymous]I'd like to hear from the million dollar house dweller receiving financial aid who says I and others have NO CLUE. Well, please, clue me in. If you're telling me you have a million dollar mortgage, I say, okay, you're an idiot. You can't afford that, clearly. Sell your house (without any equity) and rent something you can afford. If you say there is a tax advantage, that's true. But that doesn't mean you live in a house you can't afford for a tax break. You live in a house you CAN afford for a tax break, or you rent. You don't penalize other children of need because you spent more on housing than you should have.

If on the other hand you actually have some substantial equity left in your house, tell me why it's fair that you accumulate wealth while borrowing from others. 
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That would be me.  So I can use zillow too and see our house is estimated at $1 million.  That is a zillow estimate.  The real value is more like 850 best based on comparables on the street.  The tax assessed value has gone from 600 all the way to $1.1 million and has now headed back down to 900 or so.  The mortgage total is at just over 750.  After taxes and commissions etc there is nothing left if we sold.  Why would we sell in this market anyway?  Call me an idiot, fine I can take it.  Bt it isn;t very nice to namecall or accuse when you know one fact (an expensive house) without knowing any other inputs into the FA decisions, other aspects of our financial situation.

Regarding the house in question, the monthly mortgage is not unreasonable, how much do you think a 3 bedroom apartment or rental costs in a safe neighborhood where we can walk to work and school?  With the tax advantage, it makes owning better than renting.  We are certainly not accumulating wealth, but if we do then we would expect to get less or no FA.  If we had savings, more equity, higher incomes,less expenses, etc, then our financial situation would be different and viewed differently by our school.

We are not penalizing other children of need.  That is a pretty outrageous accusation.  If the school deemed us not needy of FA we would not get any.  We wouldn't.  It is not merit based.  It is measured by financial models which take all the inputs and spit out what the parent contribution should be.  The schools consider this number when awarding aid.  In a city like DC a school may award a bit more more aid given the cost of living.  How are we penalizing other children?  Because we are taking money away from the FA pot?  The school wants a balance of full pays, full scholarships and partial pays.  We are grateful for the FA we get, and will at some point give back what we can, as we can.[/quote]

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