Homestead protection, state by state

Four shapes of homestead

A homestead exemption keeps a debtor's home out of a forced sale, within the limits the text sets and minus the debts it lists. The states measure that home in one of four ways, and the four groups here are this page's own sorting for the map, not a legal category anyone else uses.

Some states measure by area. Florida's constitution protects up to 160 acres of contiguous land outside a municipality and up to half an acre inside one. Fla. Const. art. X, sec. 4¹. Texas does the same by acres and use: a city, town or village homestead of up to 10 acres, rural homesteads of up to 200 acres for a family or 100 for a single adult. Tex. Const. art. XVI, sec. 51²; Tex. Prop. Code 41.002³. Kansas exempts up to 160 acres of farming land or one acre in town, occupied as a residence. K.S.A. 60-2301⁴. For Florida and Texas the measure is land, and whether any dollar limit also applies is a question their homestead text does not settle.

Some states measure by both. Alabama caps the homestead at $15,000 in value and 160 acres. Ala. Code 6-10-2⁵. Mississippi exempts the land and buildings a householder owns and occupies, running to 160 acres and $75,000 after deducting existing encumbrances. Miss. Code 85-3-21⁶. Arkansas sets a $2,500 value limit but never reduces the homestead below 80 acres or a quarter acre whatever the value. Ark. Code 16-66-210⁷. Minnesota goes to 160 acres and $510,000, or $1,275,000 if the land is used primarily for agriculture, figures that change periodically. Minn. Stat. 510.02⁸.

Most states measure by a dollar figure, and the spread is wide: Kentucky $5,000, Illinois $15,000, New Mexico $150,000, Rhode Island $500,000. KRS 427.060⁹; 735 ILCS 5/12-901¹⁰; NMSA 42-10-9¹¹; R.I. Gen. Laws 9-26-4.1¹². Nevada does not state a flat exemption of that kind; its procedure pays the debtor $605,000 of equity out of a forced sale and bars any bid below that sum. NRS 115.050¹³. Massachusetts carries two figures: an automatic $125,000 and a declared $1,000,000 created by recording a declaration. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 188, 1¹⁴. New Hampshire moves to $400,000 on January 1, 2026. RSA 480:1¹⁵.

And two states write a residence exemption only for bankruptcy. Delaware exempts up to $200,000 in a principal residence in a federal bankruptcy or state insolvency proceeding. 10 Del. C. 4914¹⁶. Maryland's residence exemption applies in a Title 11 proceeding, up to the 11 U.S.C. 522(d)(1)¹⁷ amount as adjusted. Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. 11-504. Whether either protects a residence from an ordinary judgment outside bankruptcy is a question their statutes do not answer. West Virginia sits apart: it exempts a homestead up to $5,000 from all debts and liabilities, except purchase money, improvements and property taxes, and writes a separate $35,000 figure for a person who files a bankruptcy petition. W. Va. Code 38-9-3¹⁸; W. Va. Code 38-10-4¹⁹.

Lien, or sale, or both

A homestead can be protected two different ways, and the difference decides whether a judgment leaves a mark on the land records at all.

In some states the text says plainly that no judgment lien attaches to the homestead. Florida is one. Fla. Const. art. X, sec. 4. So are Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah and Wisconsin. Ark. Code 16-66-210; Iowa Code 624.23²⁰; Neb. Rev. Stat. 40-101²¹; N.D.C.C. 28-20-13²²; ORS 18.395²³; SDCL 43-31-1²⁴; Utah Code 78B-5-503²⁵; Wis. Stat. 815.20²⁶. Oregon's exemption from the lien of every judgment runs to $40,000, Wisconsin's to $75,000. ORS 18.395; Wis. Stat. 815.20. In Texas a recorded abstract of judgment is a lien only on real property that is not exempt. Tex. Prop. Code 52.001²⁷.

Elsewhere the lien attaches and the sale is what is barred. Oklahoma's judgment lien reaches the homestead, but liens on a homestead are exempt from forced sale. 12 O.S. 706²⁸. In New York the lien of a judgment attaches to the surplus above the exempt amount, so the house is not clear, it is merely safe up to the county figure. CPLR 5206(d)²⁹. Idaho runs the same way: a judgment becomes a lien on the value above the exemption from the time the creditor records it. Idaho Code 55-1009³⁰.

That distinction is where the real surprise sits. A homestead can be exempt from sale and still carry a lien that waits for the day the property stops being a home.

Equity, not price

A homestead figure is rarely measured against what the house would sell for. It is measured against equity, the slice left after the mortgages and other liens come off.

New York, North Dakota and Colorado each state the exemption in value above liens and encumbrances. CPLR 5206; N.D.C.C. 47-18-01³¹; C.R.S. 38-41-201³². Mississippi deducts existing encumbrances first. Miss. Code 85-3-21. Connecticut and North Carolina use fair market value less liens, and Idaho uses market value less liens and encumbrances. Conn. Gen. Stat. 52-352b³³; N.C. Gen. Stat. 1C-1601³⁴; Idaho Code 55-1001³⁵. So a $250,000 exemption on a house worth $250,000 with a $240,000 mortgage protects $10,000, because that is all there was.

Half of nothing is nothing. The large number printed in a statute protects only the small equity left on a heavily mortgaged house.

The debts a homestead does not stop

Most homestead texts list debts they will not protect against, and the same classes recur almost everywhere: taxes on the property, the money that bought it, the work and materials that improved it, and, in some states, labor on the land.

Florida's constitution carves out taxes and assessments and purchase obligations, along with house, field or other labor. Fla. Const. art. X, sec. 4. Texas names the purchase money of the homestead and the taxes due on it. Tex. Const. art. XVI, sec. 50³⁶. Kansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Utah, Wisconsin and Georgia run the same list in varying combinations. K.S.A. 60-2301; La. R.S. 20:1³⁷; Tenn. Code 26-2-301³⁸; Utah Code 78B-5-503; Wis. Stat. 815.20; O.C.G.A. 44-13-1³⁹. Florida's roll and what it shows about the homestead is a page of its own.

Some texts carve out judgments by what they are for. Maine excludes torts involving more than ordinary negligence. 14 M.R.S. 4422⁴⁰. Massachusetts excludes judgments based on fraud, duress, undue influence or lack of capacity. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 188, 3⁴¹. Tennessee and Utah strip the exemption from property bought with fraudulently obtained funds or acquired through criminal activity. Tenn. Code 26-2-312⁴²; Utah Code 78B-5-503.

Others tie the exemption to when the debt arose. Kentucky's does not apply to a debt that existed before the property was bought or improved. KRS 427.060. Rhode Island's does not apply to a debt contracted before the estate of homestead was acquired. R.I. Gen. Laws 9-26-4.1. A creditor whose claim predates the house reads those two closely, because the home came after the debt.

The figure the statute itself moves

Many of the dollar amounts above are not today's amounts. The statute that wrote them also provides for their adjustment, so the printed figure is a base, never the number in force on its own.

Arizona adjusts $400,000 each year from 2024. A.R.S. 33-1101⁴³. Maine adjusts $80,000 every three years from April 1, 2024. 14 M.R.S. 4422. Montana rises 4 percent each year after 2021 from $350,000. MCA 70-32-104⁴⁴. Ohio adjusts $125,000 every three years from April 1, 2010. Ohio Rev. Code 2329.66⁴⁵. Virginia's $50,000 adjusts every three years from April 1, 2027. Va. Code 34-4⁴⁶. California ties its figure to local house prices, the greater of the countywide median up to $600,000 or $300,000, both adjusted yearly, and Washington uses the greater of $125,000 or the county median. Cal. Code Civ. Proc. 704.730⁴⁷; RCW 6.13.030⁴⁸.

New York runs three county tiers that adjust every three years. The Department of Financial Services' published 2024 amounts are $204,825, $170,700 and $102,400, effective April 1, 2024, with the next adjustment scheduled for April 1, 2027. CPLR 5206(a); CPLR 5253⁴⁹. The base figures written in the statute, $150,000, $125,000 and $75,000, are not the amounts in force. Print any of these without its adjustment date and it is wrong the following spring.

Several states leave the current figure outside the text. The Utah auditor recalculates its number each year. The Minnesota commissioner publishes the change, and Indiana's $15,000 applies only until the department of financial institutions adopts a rule. Utah Code 78B-5-503; Minn. Stat. 510.02; IC 34-55-10-2⁵⁰. Where a page cannot see the published number, it prints the base and the date.

Recording a declaration

Whether the protection needs a filing, and who has to file it, varies as much as the dollar figures do.

In many states nothing is filed at all. Rhode Island's estate of homestead is automatic and needs no recorded declaration. R.I. Gen. Laws 9-26-4.1. Oregon's is effective without the debtor claiming it. ORS 18.395. Idaho protects property from the time the owner occupies it as a principal residence. Idaho Code 55-1004⁵¹. Massachusetts gives every qualifying home an automatic $125,000 and lets the owner record a declaration to reach $1,000,000, though neither reaches a lien recorded before the estate of homestead was created. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 188, 3.

California is where a recording changes the outcome cleanly: a judgment lien does not attach to a declared homestead if the declaration was recorded before the abstract of judgment. Cal. Code Civ. Proc. 704.950⁵². In Florida a resident may record a written statement claiming the homestead, and a person whose land is levied on before the homestead has been set apart may claim it any time before the day of sale. Fla. Stat. 222.01⁵³; Fla. Stat. 222.02⁵⁴.

Some states put the filing on the debtor after a levy, as Nebraska does with an application filed with the clerk of the district court and served on the creditor, and as Wyoming does by telling the debtor to file a written claim. Neb. Rev. Stat. 40-107⁵⁵; Wyo. Stat. 1-17-102⁵⁶. Colorado flips it onto the creditor: before proceeding against homesteaded property, the creditor files an affidavit with the county clerk and recorder and the sheriff, showing the fair market value less prior liens exceeds the exemption. C.R.S. 38-41-206⁵⁷. And Florida's notice of homestead gives a judgment lienor 45 days to sue over homestead status after notice is served, failing which the lien is deemed not to attach as to a buyer or lender closing within 180 days. Fla. Stat. 222.01(4).

The federal cap in bankruptcy

A debtor in bankruptcy exempts under one of two lists, the federal list or the state's, and if the debtor uses the state's, a federal ceiling sits on top of whatever that state allows.

Which state's law applies turns on domicile: the place the debtor was domiciled for the 730 days before the petition, or, if that was not one State, the place of domicile for the 180 days before those 730. 11 U.S.C. 522(b)(3). The federal list is available unless the applicable state law specifically does not allow it, and if the domicile rule leaves the debtor with no exemption at all, the federal list opens anyway. 11 U.S.C. 522(b)(2); 11 U.S.C. 522(b)(3). The federal list's own residence figure, $31,575 under the 2025 adjustment, up from $27,900, applies to cases commenced on or after April 1, 2025. 11 U.S.C. 522(d)(1).

Here is the cap that catches people. A debtor using state exemptions may not exempt interest in a residence or claimed homestead acquired in the 1215 days before the petition above a dollar amount the 2025 adjustment sets at $214,000, up from $189,050. 11 U.S.C. 522(p). It does not count equity rolled over from a previous residence in the same State, bought before the 1215 days began, and it does not apply to a family farmer's principal residence. 11 U.S.C. 522(p)(2). So a generous state exemption, Florida's or Texas's among them, meets a federal ceiling on anything bought in roughly the last three and a third years.

A second cap at the same adjusted amount applies where the court finds a felony conviction showing the filing was an abuse, or where the debtor owes a debt from securities fraud, fiduciary fraud, civil RICO, or a criminal act, intentional tort or willful or reckless misconduct causing serious injury or death in the preceding 5 years, except so far as the interest is reasonably necessary for support. 11 U.S.C. 522(q). The value is reduced too by whatever came from property the debtor disposed of in the 10 years before the petition with intent to hinder, delay or defraud. 11 U.S.C. 522(o). These are 2025 figures with a 2025 date; the next adjustment falls three years on. 11 U.S.C. 104⁵⁸.

What this does not cover

A state left unshaded on the map is a state whose text the research did not settle, not a state shown to have no homestead at all.

New Jersey and Pennsylvania are among the unshaded. The absence of a figure for them is silence, not a finding that a residence is unprotected there. Florida and Texas sit in the area group, sorted by their acreage text; this page does not reach the question of whether a dollar limit also applies to them. Delaware and Maryland appear only in bankruptcy, because that is the only homestead text their statutes supply here, and whether either protects a residence from an ordinary judgment is a question left open.

Nobody writing this is a lawyer and none of it is advice. Whether a particular house is protected, and by how much against which creditor, is a question for counsel with the file open, because it turns on the equity, the kind of debt and the date the home was bought, not on the headline number in a statute. What a page can do is narrower. It can tell you what your debtor's state measures, what it will not stop, and what it asks to be recorded, and the decision that follows is yours.