For 2026 the California homestead exemption protects between $371,547 and $743,459 of equity in the home you live in. Your county's figure is the prior year's countywide median sale price for a single-family home, never below the floor and never above the cap. Los Angeles County is at the cap. No state agency publishes an official county chart, so the exact number must be confirmed for your county before filing.
The 2026 numbers
Two figures matter. The floor is $371,547. The cap is $743,459. Every county in California lands somewhere on that range, and the range itself is indexed to inflation each year, so the 2027 figures will be higher.
Before 2021, the homestead was $75,000 for a single person and topped out at $175,000. The change to a county-median formula under AB 1885 was the biggest shift in California exemption law in a generation. It's the reason a Chapter 7 in Los Angeles almost never costs someone their house anymore, provided they're current on the mortgage. The rest of the California exemption picture matters too, but the homestead is the number that decides whether a homeowner can file Chapter 7 at all.
How your county's figure is calculated
CCP § 704.730 sets the exemption at the countywide median sale price for a single-family home in the calendar year before the year you claim it, subject to the floor and the cap. For a 2026 filing, that means 2025 sales data for your county.
In Los Angeles County the median has been well above $743,459 for years, so the exemption is the cap. Coastal counties with similar prices tend to sit at the cap as well. The Inland Empire is where the formula gets interesting. Riverside and San Bernardino medians have moved around enough that the exemption in those counties can fall between the floor and the cap, and a difference of a few thousand dollars in the median can be the difference between a clean Chapter 7 and a trustee demanding money.
If you live in Santa Clarita, you file in the San Fernando Valley Division, but you're still in Los Angeles County and you still get the L.A. figure. Division follows county. So does the homestead.
There is no official chart
People expect to find a table on a government website listing the homestead exemption for each of the 58 counties. There isn't one. The Legislature wrote the formula and left it to debtors, trustees and judges to apply it.
In practice, attorneys pull median sale price data from the California Association of Realtors, from county recorder data, or from commercial sources, and cite it on Schedule C. Trustees can and sometimes do argue for a different figure using a different data set. In Los Angeles County this argument is academic, because every reasonable source puts the median above the cap. In a county near the floor, the data source itself can become a dispute.
So we say this plainly: the figure for your county must be confirmed for your county, from current data, at the time of filing. We don't guess at it, and you shouldn't rely on a number from a blog post written for a different year.
Equity, not value, and what the trustee actually does
The exemption protects equity, not the home's price. Equity is what's left after every lien: the first mortgage, a HELOC, a recorded tax lien, a judgment lien. A $1.1 million house in Mar Vista with an $800,000 mortgage has $300,000 of equity, and that's the number that goes up against $743,459.
A Chapter 7 trustee only sells a house when doing so would produce real money for creditors after paying off the liens, paying you the full exemption, and covering the costs of sale, including commissions. Here is how that plays out at the Los Angeles County figure:
| Home value | Liens | Equity | Against $743,459 | Likely outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $950,000 | $700,000 | $250,000 | Fully covered | Nothing for the trustee; house is safe in Chapter 7 |
| $1,200,000 | $500,000 | $700,000 | Fully covered | Same result, though the trustee will check the valuation closely |
| $1,400,000 | $600,000 | $800,000 | Over by roughly $56,000 | Costs of sale may eat the excess; trustee may abandon, or negotiate a payment |
| $1,800,000 | $500,000 | $1,300,000 | Over by roughly $556,000 | Chapter 7 is the wrong tool; Chapter 13 protects the house by paying the excess through a plan |
Those are illustrations, not quotes. Your county's figure, your appraisal and your lien payoffs decide the real answer.
When equity exceeds the exemption
Your equity is $900,000 and the exemption is $743,459. In a Chapter 7 the trustee can list the house, sell it, hand you $743,459 from escrow, and distribute what's left to creditors. That's a legal outcome and an awful one.
Chapter 13 exists for exactly this. The plan has to pay unsecured creditors at least what they'd receive in a Chapter 7 liquidation, so you pay the non-exempt equity over three to five years while you keep the deed. Nobody lists your house. The comparison between Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 is usually settled by this one number for a homeowner.
The less obvious move is timing. If the county median for the prior year is climbing, waiting a few months into a new calendar year can raise the exemption. If it's falling, the reverse. We watch this for clients in the Inland Empire counties every December.
Requirements and the traps that catch people
The property has to be your principal residence on the day you file. A rental you own, a house you moved out of during a separation, a lot you plan to build on: none of those qualify. Living there is the test, and the trustee will ask about it on Zoom.
A few more things to know:
- You don't need to record a homestead declaration to claim the exemption in bankruptcy. Recording one helps with judgment liens outside bankruptcy, but it isn't a prerequisite here.
- If you sell the house, the proceeds stay exempt for six months while you look for a replacement. After that, they're cash.
- Federal law caps the homestead for a home acquired within the 1,215 days before filing at a figure well below the California cap, unless the equity was rolled over from a prior California home. Recent buyers need this checked.
- The homestead only applies in System 1. Choosing System 2 to get the wildcard means giving up this number entirely, which is why the System 1 versus System 2 decision is made with the house in mind first.
And one honest note. If your equity is far above the cap and you can't fund a Chapter 13 plan, bankruptcy may not be your answer. A sale on your own terms often beats a sale on the trustee's.
every January I get calls from people who read the homestead number somewhere and did the math themselves. Half of them used the old $75,000 figure. A few used the cap without checking their county. The one that worries me is the family in Riverside County who assumed they had $743,459 of protection and actually had less, because the county median had come in under the cap that year. We caught it before filing. The point isn't that the formula is hard. It's that there's no official chart, and the number moves every year, so someone has to actually look it up.
Questions people ask about this
What is the California homestead exemption for 2026?
It ranges from $371,547 to $743,459 depending on the county. The figure for your county is the prior calendar year's countywide median sale price for a single-family home, but never below the floor and never above the cap. Los Angeles County is at the cap.
Where can I find the homestead amount for my county?
No state agency publishes an official chart. Attorneys and trustees use prior-year median sale price data from sources like the California Association of Realtors or county records. Confirm the current figure for your county from current data before relying on it.
Do I have to record a homestead declaration to use the exemption in bankruptcy?
No. The bankruptcy homestead under CCP § 704.730 applies automatically to the home you live in. A recorded declaration helps in some situations outside bankruptcy, such as with judgment liens, but it isn't required to claim the exemption in your case.
Does the exemption apply to my home's value or my equity?
Equity. Subtract every lien (first mortgage, second, HELOC, tax liens, judgment liens) from a realistic value. Only what's left gets measured against the exemption. Most Los Angeles homeowners with a mortgage have equity well inside the cap.
What if my equity is more than the exemption?
In Chapter 7 the trustee can sell the house, pay you the exemption, and distribute the rest. Chapter 13 avoids that by letting you pay the non-exempt equity through a plan over three to five years while keeping the home.
Can I get the homestead exemption on a rental property I own?
No. The exemption covers only the dwelling you actually live in on the filing date. Investment property, a second home, or a house you've moved out of doesn't qualify, and the trustee will ask where you live at the 341 meeting.
Talk it through with the attorney
Send us your mortgage statement and your county, and Naomi will tell you on a free video call whether your equity fits inside the 2026 homestead figure and, if not, what Chapter 13 would cost to protect the house.