Homestead exemption amounts by state
How much equity in a home a creditor cannot reach, state by state, taken from each state's own statute. When a money judgment is enforced or a bankruptcy is filed, this figure decides whether the house is sold: equity below it is protected outright, and the difference between $50,000 and $1,000,000 is the difference between keeping a home and losing it. No federal agency compiles the state figures, and the fifty-state tables that do exist are published by law firms and bankruptcy-filing services. Several of these numbers moved recently and are indexed to keep moving: California's adjusts every January against the state CPI, Minnesota's is adjusted periodically by the commerce commissioner, Virginia's is due for a three-year CPI adjustment on 1 April 2027, and Missouri raised its figure by statute in 2026. A table that prints a dollar amount without the indexing rule beside it is wrong from the next adjustment onward, which is why this asset records the statute's own words for both.
Records18
Sources20
Verified
Review by
Licenceunknown
2 records where two or more sources state different values. Both sides are reproduced on the record page, each with its own source and quote.
The data
| State | Homestead exemption | How the figure is kept current | Statute | Area limit | Amount protected without filing anything |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | The countywide median sale price for a single-family home in the calendar year prior to the calendar year in which the judgment debtor claims the exemption, not to exceed six hundred thousand dollars ($600,000). (2) Three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000). | The amounts specified in this section shall adjust annually for inflation, beginning on January 1, 2022, based on the change in the annual California Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers | 704.730. | ||
| Colorado | The sum of two hundred fifty thousand dollars if the homestead is occupied as a home by an owner or an owner's family | 38-41-201. Homestead exemption - definitions. | |||
| Florida | There shall be exempt from forced sale under process of any court, and no judgment, decree or execution shall be a lien thereon, except for the payment of taxes and assessments thereon, obligations contracted for the purchase, improvement or repair thereof, or obligations contracted for house, field or other labor performed on the realty | SECTION 4. Homestead; exemptions. | a homestead, if located outside a municipality, to the extent of one hundred sixty acres of contiguous land and improvements thereon, which shall not be reduced without the owner’s consent by reason of subsequent inclusion in a municipality; or if located within a municipality, to the extent of one-half acre of contiguous land | ||
| Idaho | the homestead exemption amount shall not exceed the sum of one hundred seventy-five thousand dollars ($175,000) | 55-1003. Homestead exemption limited. | regardless of area | ||
| Kansas | a homestead to the extent of 160 acres of farming land, or of one acre within the limits of an incorporated town or city, or a manufactured home or mobile home, occupied as a residence by the owner or by the family of the owner, or by both the owner and family thereof, together with all the improvements on the same, shall be exempted from forced sale under any process of law | 60-2301. Homestead; extent of exemption. | 160 acres of farming land, or of one acre within the limits of an incorporated town or city | ||
| Massachusetts | $1,000,000 created by a written declaration, executed and recorded pursuant to section 5 | Chapter 188, Section 1 | $125,000 pursuant to section 4 | ||
| Minnesota | may not exceed $510,000 or, if the homestead is used primarily for agricultural purposes, $1,275,000 | The dollar amounts in subdivision 1 must change periodically in the manner provided for under section 550.37, subdivision 4a | 510.02 | any quantity of land not exceeding 160 acres | |
| Missouri | not exceeding the aggregate value of forty thousand dollars | 513.475. Homestead defined — exempt from execution — spouses debarred from selling, when. | |||
| Nebraska | a homestead not exceeding one hundred twenty thousand dollars in value | 40-101 | not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres of land | ||
| Nevada | does not exceed $605,000 in value | NRS 115.010 | |||
| North Dakota | the total not to exceed one hundred fifty thousand dollars in value, over and above liens or encumbrances or both | 47-18-01. Homestead exemption - Area and value. | |||
| Oklahomasources differ | The home of such person, provided that such home is the principal residence of such person | Section 1 - Property Exempt from Attachment, Execution or Other Forced Sale - Bankruptcy Proceedings | |||
| Oregon | a homestead is exempt from sale on execution, from the lien of every judgment and from liability in any form for the debts of the owner to the amount in value of $150,000, except as otherwise provided by law | The State Court Administrator shall index the amounts identified as exempt from execution under paragraph (a) of this subsection each year on or before July 1 to reflect increases or decreases in the cost of living for the previous calendar year, based on changes in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, West Region (All Items) | 18.395 Homestead exemption. | any quantity of land not exceeding 160 acres, and when located in any such town or city, of any quantity of land not exceeding one block | |
| South Dakotasources differ | The homestead, including a homestead listed for sale, of every family, resident in this state, so long as it continues to possess the character of a homestead is exempt from judicial sale, from judgment lien, and from all mesne or final process from any court, to the extent and as provided by statute | 43-31-1 . Homestead exempt from judicial sale, judgment lien, and mesne or final process--Mobile homes--Senior citizens. | |||
| Texas | The homestead of a family, or of a single adult person, shall be, and is hereby protected from forced sale, for the payment of all debts | Sec. 50. PROTECTION OF HOMESTEAD FROM FORCED OR UNAUTHORIZED SALE; EXCEPTIONS | The homestead, not in a town or city, shall consist of not more than two hundred acres of land, which may be in one or more parcels, with the improvements thereon; the homestead in a city, town or village, shall consist of lot or contiguous lots amounting to not more than 10 acres of land, together with any improvements on the land | ||
| Virginia | real or personal property used as the principal residence of the householder or the householder's dependents not exceeding $50,000 in value | On April 1, 2027, and at each three-year interval ending on April 1 thereafter, each monetary limit in effect under this section immediately before such April 1 shall be adjusted to reflect the change in the Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers (CPI-U) | § 34-4. Exemption created. | ||
| Washington | the greater of: (a) $125,000; (b) The county median sale price of a single-family home in the preceding calendar year | 6.13.030 | |||
| Wyoming | a homestead not exceeding one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000.00) in value, exempt from execution and attachment arising from any debt, contract or civil obligation entered into or incurred | 1-20-101. Homestead exemption; right. | a house on a lot or lots or other lands of any number of acres |
Where this came from
Every record above links the page it was taken from and quotes the sentence that states it. These are the 20 sources this dataset was assembled from.
- leginfo.legislature.ca.govhttps://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=704.730.&lawCode=CCP
- leg.colorado.govhttps://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/images/olls/crs2023-title-38.pdf
- leg.state.fl.ushttp://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?submenu=3
- legislature.idaho.govhttps://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title55/T55CH10/SECT55-1003/
- ksrevisor.govhttps://www.ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch60/060_023_0001.html
- malegislature.govhttps://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartII/TitleI/Chapter188/Section1
- revisor.mn.govhttps://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/510.02
- revisor.mo.govhttps://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=513.475
- nebraskalegislature.govhttps://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=40-101
- leg.state.nv.ushttps://www.leg.state.nv.us/nrs/nrs-115.html
- ndlegis.govhttps://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t47c18.pdf
- oscn.nethttps://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=71491
- oscn.nethttps://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=71487
- oregonlegislature.govhttps://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/ors/ors018.html
- sdlegislature.govhttps://sdlegislature.gov/api/Statutes/2065520.html
- sdlegislature.govhttps://sdlegislature.gov/api/Statutes/2065517.html
- tlc.texas.govhttps://tlc.texas.gov/docs/legref/TxConst.pdf
- law.lis.virginia.govhttps://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title34/chapter2/section34-4/
- app.leg.wa.govhttps://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=6.13.030
- wyoleg.govhttps://www.wyoleg.gov/statutes/compress/title01.pdf
Machine-readable
- data.jsonThe whole dataset — every record with its source URL and source quote.
- Open Knowledge Format bundleOne JSON object per line — every record's frontmatter and quoted span exactly as it is held here, in one fetch.
- How this is made and checkedWhat "verified against source" does and does not mean.
From your own code
Same records, same quotes, without scraping the page: refsource is on PyPI and npm. Each value comes back carrying the URL it was read from and the sentence on that page that states it — .source and .quote sit on the value itself rather than in a side channel, so the checking step is available instead of skipped.
pip install refsource
refsource lookup state-homestead-exemption-amounts state=California
npx -y refsource lookup state-homestead-exemption-amounts state=California