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The value of a family's primary residence has not been considered by the federal need analysis methodology since the 1993-94 academic year. Nevertheless, many private colleges and universities do take home equity (the market value of the home minus the unpaid mortgage) into account. Moreover, if the family owns a second home, the net value of that home is considered by both the federal and institutional formulas.

Note that the need analysis formulas use the market value, not the insurance or tax value, when determining your home equity.

Over-estimating the fair market value of your home can adversely affect your eligibility for financial aid. This calculator uses the Federal Housing Index Multiplier (2006 tables) from the Bureau of Economic Analysis at the US Department of Commerce to compute the minimum derived value of your home, based on the purchase price of your home and the year of purchase. This will produce a very conservative figure for the value of your home in the current real estate market. It is a good idea to add an extra 10% to the value reported by this calculator. If, however, you have a recent assessed valuation or appraisal that is higher than this figure, we recommend using the assessment to be safe.

If there are extenuating circumstances that cause your home to be worth less than this value, use the lower value but be prepared to document it with assessments, appraisals or other proof of depreciated value.

Select "Housing" to use the tables for the Federal Housing Index Multiplier. Select "Commercial Property" to use the tables for the Federal Commercial Property Multiplier. This is a similar index, but is used for commercial property.

[The US Department of Education last published Housing Index Multiplier Tables in the 1997-1998 Verification Guide, based on 1996-1997 data. Many books that continue to publish Housing Index Multiplier Tables are still using 1996-1997 data. FinAid's calculator, however, uses more up-to-date data by applying the same methodology the US Department of Education previously used to construct the tables to more recent economic data. Please note, however, that the Bureau of Economic Analysis never considered the housing index multiplier tables to be a valid use of their data, since the chain-type price indexes were not developed for this use.]

Note: Homes purchased in 2006 and after are valued at the purchase price.