homestead exemption

Features

Homestead exemption laws typically have three primary features:

1. They prevent the forced sale of a home to meet the demands of creditors;
2. They provide the surviving spouse with shelter;
3. They provide an exemption from property taxes which can be applied to a home.

For purposes of these statutes, a homestead is the one primary residence of a person, and no other exemption can be claimed on any other property anywhere, even outside the boundaries of the jurisdiction where the exemption is claimed.

In some states, like Texas, homestead protection is automatic. In many states, however, the homeowner must file a claim for homestead exemption with the state, and will not receive the protections of the law until this has been done. Furthermore, the protection can be lost if the homeowner abandons the protected property by taking up primary residence elsewhere.

Homestead exemption, however, does not apply to forced sales to satisfy mortgages, mechanics liens, or sales to pay property taxes.

Immunity from forced sale

States provide different levels of protection under their homestead exemption laws. Some only protect property up to a certain value, and if a home is worth more than that, the creditor can still force the sale of that home, but the owner can keep a certain amount of the proceeds of the sale.

Texas, Florida, and Oklahoma have some of the broadest homestead protections in the U.S., in terms of the value of property that can be protected. Texas's homestead exemption has no limit on dollar value of the homestead with a 10 acres limit inside a municipality (the urban homestead) and 100 acres outside a municipality (the rural homestead). The rural acre allotment is doubled for a family--200 acres can be shielded from creditors in Texas for a rural homestead. The Texas homestead includes all substantially affixed items on the homestead--houses, swimming pools, a water tower, barn, pumps, roads, etc. The Oklahoma exemptions protect 160 acres of land of any value outside of a municipality's corporate limits (as well as those areas annexed by cities and towns after 1997) or 1 acre of land of any value within a municipality's corporate limits.

Florida's homestead exemption provision has no limit to the value of property that can be protected, so long as the property occupies no more than ½ acre (2,000 m²) within a municipality, or 160 acres (647,000 m²) outside of a municipality.

Property tax exemption

A homestead exemption is most often only on a fixed monetary amount, such as the first 50,000 dollars of the assessed value. The remainder is taxed at the normal rate. In this case, a home valued at 150,000 would then only be taxed on 100,000; a home valued at 75,000 would only be taxed on 25,000.

The exemption is generally intended to make the property tax a progressive tax. It is sometimes applied only (or more generously) to the elderly, which are frequently on a fixed income. In some places, the exemption is paid for with a local or state (or equivalent unit) sales tax.

The homestead exemption sales tax (HEST) in some places has been criticized for not exempting groceries, thus the poor end up paying some of their food money to subsidize those who can already afford their own homes. Since the poor typically rent, neither they nor their landlords get an exemption in return either.

Examples

• Georgia allows a 1% HEST, but it is only done in a few counties. None exempt groceries, but all must exempt prescription drugs.
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