Question for Homeowners regarding tuition

amother

OP ↓

Thu, Jun 20 2024, 9:14 am

If you ask for a tuition break, are you expected to first downgrade your home. Either sell and buy something smaller or rent out your house and rent a small apartment?

Im frustrated with the tuition committees. I'm renting. A small 4 bedroom old 1500 sq foot house for my large family. But it's 4 bedrooms and a house not an apartment.
I'm living hand to mouth and doesn't seem likely that I'll ever put together enough to buy, but also dealing with constant raising rental prices.
The school is trying to push me to "downgrade". To move into a smaller cheaper 2 1/2 bedroom basement apartment rather than give me a tuition break.
I'm frustrating because I'm not living large and unreasonable. But I need to have a quality of life and not pay every last penny for tuition.

If I owned this small 4 bedroom house, I don't think I'd be pushed to move into a basement apartment. Would I?

tulip3

Thu, Jun 20 2024, 9:26 am

That's ridiculous. 1500 square feet is not large for a large a family or even a small family. To be expected to move underground with many children into a basement is not a normal ask.

amother

Bisque

Thu, Jun 20 2024, 9:31 am

What in the world?? Absolutely not. Mine even saw I have a high mortgage payment and that helped them give me a discount. That’s ridiculous. If you lived in a giant mansion I can hear the argument. But a typical/ small house? That’s really not ok.

mig100 ↓

Thu, Jun 20 2024, 9:32 am

tulip3 wrote:

That's ridiculous. 1500 square feet is not large for a large a family or even a small family. To be expected to move underground with many children into a basement is not a normal ask.

Agree

amother

Cobalt

Thu, Jun 20 2024, 9:36 am

I have the opposite problem where I am in a tiny 2 bedroom basement with a few kids kah, trying to scrimp and save so that we can get out one day IyH but they want us to give everything extra to tuition just because our rent is so low. Our rent is low because no one else would live like this!! Not because we are lucky

amother

↑ OP

Thu, Jun 20 2024, 9:41 am

amother Cobalt wrote:

Yeah.
That's how I got here in the first place.
By not being able to save anything because all my money that wasn't going to rent and food and insurance was going to tuition so I was never able to scrape together a down payment.

amother

Pear ↓

Thu, Jun 20 2024, 9:51 am

Ours has a clause that you're ineligible for a tution break baring extreme circumstances if your property taxes are above 14k (which translates into a house worth around 900k or more).
I also don't know how you define large family, but many places won't rent to you for more than 2 people per bedroom.

↑ mig100 ↓

Thu, Jun 20 2024, 11:14 am

amother Pear wrote:

That doesnt make sense either. what if you bought a house for 300k-400k 20 years ago and the value went up to 900 now ( like most townhouses, duplexes in lakewood now)

Whats that family supposed to do - move out of the home they lived in for 20 years?

amother

Azure

Thu, Jun 20 2024, 11:40 am

The city I live in has some more expensive/wealthier areas and some less expensive areas.

One of my kid's schools sent out an email a few months ago that they understand big families need space and they understand people may need to buy bigger houses or make additions, but they will look if the bigger houses and additions are luxury or just bigger to fit your needs.

They would not ask you to move, but if you built a fancy addition or recently bought in the more expensive side of town, they may deny. Keyword is luxury and recent. It could be you bought in the expensive area or added 10 years ago and fell on hard times after.

amother

↑ Pear

Thu, Jun 20 2024, 11:48 am

mig100 wrote:

So I doubt their taxes hit the 14k threshold- that's the idea of doing it by taxes not home price. In my small town it happens to be that the houses that hit the threshold are the huge ones, that even if you bought them when things were perfect cost at least 800k back then

seeker

Thu, Jun 20 2024, 1:24 pm

That's outrageous. Moving is a huge project, it's not free either, and you'll have to move again at higher cost when the kids get bigger.

That's completely leaving aside any details about the size of your current home, family, and proposed home. Are they planning on going through the stress of finding a new place, packing up your old one, finding new systems for a smaller space, and maybe they want to take you to the country every summer so you can stretch your legs after living in a basement all year?

If they asked you to cut down on a variable expense I could hear it, it would stink but it would make sense for them. But moving is not in the same category of "can you try to save money somewhere else instead of tuition."

amother

Lightpink

Thu, Jun 20 2024, 2:53 pm

There are some people who purposely become house poor so that they get the house and then get discounted tuition. So I understand tuition committees trying to find ways to eliminate that. So unless there is a short term or unforseen situation (job loss, illness) if someone has a luxury home I can understand them asking you to downsize. I am talking about those 2-3,000 sf homes. But your size home is very reasonable for the family size.

At the same time, they can't expect you to move to save $100 a month on rent as it wouldn't save money- you would pay way more in moving costs, deposits etc.

I am talking as someone who needs a tuition discount. I live in an apartment. I can't downsize. But I can't afford tuition. And they are expecting water to come from a rock. They just don't get it. Not everyone is trying to cheat them.

↑ mig100

Thu, Jun 20 2024, 9:17 pm

amother Lightpink wrote:

oy im sorry. that is a hard situation. I hope it improves

amother

Raspberry

Thu, Jun 20 2024, 11:29 pm

If op is also complaining that her utilities is high its possible that her old house are less insulated,saving money on utilities too.