Does FAFSA look at how many people are in your family? And what else do they look at other than income and assets?
Yes. Basically they look at almost everything. As I recall, they are less focused on assets than the CSS Profile which many schools require, especially those schools that give the most need-based financial aid. This is a pdf of the FAFSA so that you can look at it. Basically, they ask for every relevant line from multiple tax forms in near random order - crazy making. They do offer an IRS data retrieval tool which did not work for me. https://fafsa.ed.gov/fotw1718/pdf/PdfFafsa17-18.pdf
The IRS Data Retrieval Tool got shut down this early spring because of a security breach.
The FAFSA will ask about family size, parent and student income, parent and student assets, number of students who will be in college for that fafsa year, investments, secondary real estate equity (like rental properties or second homes).
The FAFSA will use ONE income tax return…only one year. For 2018-2019 it will use the 2016 income tax return information.
The fafsa does NOT ask about primary home equity…or any kind of consumer debt.