How Much Home Equity Could Medicaid Take? A State-by-State Look

Disclaimer: General educational research only — not legal, tax or financial advice. Figures are survey-based estimates with the limits explained in the methodology. Verify with official sources and a qualified professional before making decisions.

Estate Planning Data & Research → How Much Home Equity Could Medicaid Take? A State-by-State Look

Two different Medicaid rules involve your parents’ house, and families mix them up all the time.

• The home equity limit decides whether someone can get Medicaid long-term care while owning a home. In 2026 the federal limit is $752,000, and states may raise it to $1,130,000.
• Estate recovery decides what Medicaid can take back after the person dies. Here the limit doesn’t help you. Justice in Aging puts it plainly: the home equity exceptions “don’t apply to Medicaid estate recovery.”

Our Medicaid estate recovery scorecard rates how aggressive each state’s recovery program is: which benefits it recovers, liens, hardship waivers, and minimum claim sizes. This page covers the next question families ask: how much of a typical senior’s home is actually within reach?

Medicaid planning is a job for an elder-law attorney. For the basic documents every family needs, see whether you need a will, a living trust or both.

Key findings

• The typical senior home is well under the limit in every state. The median home value for homeowners 65 and older is $313,000 nationally (ACS 2024). Even in Hawaii, the most expensive state, the $900,000 median is 79.6% of the state’s $1,130,000 limit. For most families, the equity limit isn’t the problem. What happens to the house afterward is.
• Most older homeowners have no mortgage. Nationally, 63.7% of homeowners 65+ own their home free and clear. By state, that runs from about 52% (D.C., Nevada, California) to 80.7% (North Dakota). For them, the home’s value is the equity Medicaid can pursue after death.
• In at least 19 states, estate recovery can reach a home that skips probate. We read the statute or rule in each case. In these states, putting the house in joint names, using a transfer-on-death deed, or using a living trust may not keep it out of Medicaid’s claim. Four states we verified limit recovery to the probate estate: California, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and South Carolina. We haven’t yet verified the other 28, and we mark them “not yet verified.”
• A new federal cap is coming. Under H.R. 1, starting Jan. 1, 2028, no state can cover long-term care for someone whose home equity tops $1,000,000 (agricultural lots excepted). That pulls the limit down in the 12 jurisdictions now using $1,130,000. In those places, 0.2% (Alabama, Maine) to 2.8% (Hawaii) of senior-owned homes are valued between $1 million and $1.13 million.

Full state table

Notes:

• “Senior homes valued above the limit” uses value, not equity. Homes with a mortgage have less equity than value.
• Median values come from ACS microdata and carry sampling error, especially in small states.

How to estimate your own family’s exposure (simple calculator)

Here’s the logic we use. A spreadsheet or a pencil works fine; no code needed.

Inputs

1. Home value (V). A recent appraisal, tax assessment, or sale comps.
2. Mortgage and other liens (M).
3. Your parent’s ownership share (s). 100% if sole owner, 50% if owned equally with one other person, and so on.
4. How the home is titled: sole name (passes through probate), joint with right of survivorship, transfer-on-death deed, life estate, or living trust.
5. Your state’s estate definition from the table: probate only, or probate + non-probate.
6. Medicaid paid (C). The total the state says it paid for long-term care (and in some states other services) after age 55. You can ask the state’s estate recovery unit for a statement.
7. Protected family: – Does a spouse survive? – A child under 21? – A blind or disabled child of any age?
8. Costs paid first (F). Funeral, estate administration, and the costs of selling the house. State law sets the order.
9. Your state’s minimum claim or hardship rules. These are on our scorecard.

Steps

1. Equity: E = V − M (never below zero).
2. Your parent’s share of the equity: D = E × s.
3. Is it within reach? – If the home passes through probate, R = D. – If it passes outside probate and your state’s definition covers that kind of transfer, R = D. – If it passes outside probate and your state is probate-only, R = 0.
4. Protected family: if a spouse, a child under 21, or a blind or disabled child survives, federal law delays recovery. Today’s amount = 0, but in many states the claim can come back when the spouse dies.
5. Net available: N = R − F (never below zero).
6. Amount Medicaid could recover = the smaller of C and N. If it’s below your state’s minimum, the state may not pursue it. A hardship waiver can reduce it further.
7. Share of the home at risk = recoverable amount ÷ V.

Separate eligibility check (while your parent is living):

• If D is above your state’s 2026 limit, and no spouse or qualifying child lives in the home, your parent can’t get Medicaid long-term care until the equity comes down.
• A reverse mortgage or home equity loan is one route; federal law allows both.

Example. Take a free-and-clear $313,000 home (the U.S. median for owners 65+), owned solely by a widowed parent, with no protected family members.

• If Medicaid paid $150,000 and the funeral, probate, and sale costs come to $30,000, then N = $283,000.
• Medicaid could recover $150,000, which is 48% of the home’s value.
• If Medicaid paid $300,000, the claim would take the full $283,000, about 90%.

These are made-up numbers to show the math, not averages.

What this means for families

• Don’t count on the equity limit to protect the house. It only affects eligibility. After death, most of the home’s value can be claimed unless an exemption, deferral, or hardship waiver applies.
• Titling matters most in probate-only states. In the 4 verified probate-only states, a home that passes by survivorship or a transfer-on-death deed is generally outside the claim. In the 19 verified expanded states, the same moves may not protect it. Ask an elder-law attorney before retitling anything, because transfers can also trigger Medicaid’s five-year look-back.
• Plan early. Our guides on protecting your parents’ legacy, revocable vs. irrevocable trusts, and what to do when parents haven’t planned walk through the options.
• Know the bill you’re facing. Compare nursing home costs by state and care costs vs. income. A long nursing-home stay can easily reach the value of a typical home.

Also see SSI’s asset limit and special needs trusts for a different means-tested program, with recipients by state.

Methodology

• 2026 home equity limits. CMS sets the federal minimum and maximum each year: $752,000 and $1,130,000 for 2026, up from $730,000 and $1,097,000 in 2025.
  • CMS Informational Bulletin, Dec. 9, 2025: https://www.medicaid.gov/federal-policy-guidance/downloads/cib12092025.pdf. The medicaid.gov PDF blocked our download, so we confirmed the figures through Justice in Aging, April 2026, which cites them, and New York’s GIS 26 MA/03.
  • Which states use the higher limit: KFF, Medicaid Eligibility Levels for Older Adults and People with Disabilities (Non-MAGI) in 2025, Appendix Table 7 (state survey, March 2025), cross-checked against Justice in Aging’s 2026 list of 12 higher-limit jurisdictions.
  • Idaho and Wisconsin reported $750,000 in 2025; we didn’t confirm their 2026 figure.
  • New York’s $1,130,000 for 2026 is confirmed in NY DOH GIS 26 MA/03 (https://www.health.ny.gov/health_care/medicaid/publications/docs/gis/26ma03.pdf).
• H.R. 1 change. Justice in Aging, “H.R. 1 Imposes New Limit on Home Equity for Medicaid Long-Term Services and Supports Effective 2028” (April 9, 2026), https://justiceinaging.org/hr1-imposes-new-limit-on-home-equity-for-medicaid-ltss-effective-2028/.
• Senior home values. U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 1-year Public Use Microdata Sample (api.census.gov/data/2024/acs/acs1/pums).
  • Universe: housing units with an owner householder aged 65+ (RELSHIPP=20, AGEP 65+, TEN 1 or 2).
  • We computed weighted medians of VALP (property value) using WGTP, plus the share of homes owned free and clear (TEN=2), and the share valued above $752,000, $1,000,000, and $1,130,000.
  • 399,665 sample homes nationally; D.C. is the smallest sample, with 505.
  • VALP is the owner’s own estimate, rounded and top-coded in the PUMS. ACS 2025 data weren’t yet available in the API.
• Estate definition. We downloaded each state’s estate-recovery statute or rule from official sites on Oct. 1, 2026 (list in the CSV and data/raw/estate_def/log.json). We coded a state “probate + non-probate” only where the text explicitly reaches assets such as joint tenancy, survivorship, life estates, or trusts, and “probate only” where it limits recovery to the probate estate. Every other state is marked not verified. We didn’t rely on secondary summaries.

Related research: reverse mortgages when the owner dies, and who owns nursing homes in each state.

Also see nursing home fines by state (CMS penalty data, not a quality rating) and step-up in basis for home gains.

FAQ

Can Medicaid take my parent’s house while they’re alive?

Generally no, not while it’s their exempt home. But some states place a lien (often called a TEFRA lien) on a home when someone permanently lives in a nursing home and isn’t expected to return. See our scorecard for which states do this.

Does the $752,000 limit protect the house after death?

No. It’s an eligibility rule only. Estate recovery after death isn’t capped at that number.

If Mom puts the house in a living trust, is it safe?

It depends on the state and the type of trust. In the expanded-definition states we verified, a revocable living trust usually doesn’t protect the home (Wisconsin’s law specifically names revocable trusts). An irrevocable trust created well before applying for Medicaid is a different tool. Talk to an elder-law attorney.

What if Dad is still living in the house?

Recovery is delayed while a surviving spouse is alive, or while a child under 21 or a blind or disabled child survives. Some states then pursue the spouse’s estate later.

What changes in 2028?

Home equity above $1,000,000 will make someone ineligible for Medicaid long-term care in every state, except for homes on agricultural lots.

Cite this data

Published October 1, 2026. Data vintage: CMS 2026 home equity limits; KFF 2025 state survey; ACS 2024 1-year PUMS; state statutes read Oct 1, 2026. Editorial standards.