Medicaid pays for the large majority of nursing home care in the United States, but federal law puts a ceiling on how much home equity an applicant can hold before that coverage stops. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services set the federal floor for that ceiling in 2026 at $752,000, according to a bulletin the agency issued in December 2025 and reissued unchanged in April 2026. For a homeowner weighing whether to apply for long-term care coverage, that single number can decide whether the house they have lived in for decades counts against them.
What the $752,000 Home Equity Limit Actually Controls
The figure comes from section 1917(f) of the Social Security Act, which caps the amount of home equity Medicaid can exclude when it decides whether someone qualifies for coverage of nursing facility care and other long-term services and supports. Ordinarily, a Medicaid applicant’s primary residence is left out of the asset test entirely as long as the applicant intends to return home someday, or a spouse or dependent still lives there. The home equity limit changes that calculation once there is no such protected occupant: at that point, equity above the state’s chosen limit is treated as a countable asset that can push an applicant over Medicaid’s resource limit and block eligibility.
CMS adjusts the limit every January based on the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers. The agency’s December 9, 2025 informational bulletin set the 2026 numbers effective January 1, 2026, listing a minimum home equity limit of $752,000 and a maximum of $1,130,000, both increases from 2025.
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$752,000 Is the Federal Floor, Not a Single National Rule
States do not all use the same number. Federal law requires every state to allow at least $752,000 in home equity before the limit can apply, but states are free to set a higher limit up to the $1,130,000 ceiling, and many states with expensive housing markets use the higher figure. That means a homeowner’s actual exposure depends on which limit their own state has adopted, not on the $752,000 floor alone. The Medicaid.gov spousal impoverishment page that CMS points to in its bulletin lists the current standards by category, though it does not break the home equity figure out by individual state.
How Equity, Not Just the Home’s Value, Gets Calculated
The number that gets compared against the $752,000 or $1,130,000 limit is equity, meaning the home’s fair market value minus whatever is still owed on it, not the sale price or the tax-assessed value on its own. A home worth $900,000 with a $400,000 mortgage balance carries $500,000 in equity, which would fall under even the lower federal floor. That distinction matters most for homeowners in expensive markets who assume a high home value alone disqualifies them; a large outstanding mortgage, a home equity line of credit, or a reverse mortgage balance all reduce the equity figure that actually gets tested.
This Is About Eligibility While Alive, Not What Happens After Death
It is worth separating this rule from Medicaid estate recovery, a different program under which a state can seek repayment from a deceased recipient’s estate for long-term care costs it paid. The home equity limit described here determines whether Medicaid will pay for nursing facility care in the first place, while estate recovery is a separate, later process that only applies after the recipient has died and only to whatever assets remain in the estate at that point. A homeowner whose equity sits comfortably under the limit while they are alive can still be affected by estate recovery rules later; the two are not the same test and do not use the same dollar figures.
The Number Is Confirmed Current, Not Just Recently Set
Because Medicaid figures change every January, a number can go stale quickly if it is not re-checked. CMS reissued its spousal impoverishment and home equity standards in an April 27, 2026 update, which restated the $752,000 minimum and $1,130,000 maximum home equity limits without any change, while updating a separate, July-adjusted spousal income allowance. That reissue is useful confirmation that the 2026 home equity figures set in December are still the operative numbers deep into the year, not a first-quarter placeholder that got quietly revised.
What Homeowners Considering Nursing Home Care Should Check
Because the applicable limit depends on the state and on whether a spouse or dependent remains in the home, the safest first step is contacting the state Medicaid agency directly rather than assuming either the $752,000 floor or the $1,130,000 ceiling applies. Caseworkers can confirm the state’s adopted limit, how home equity is calculated against an outstanding mortgage, and whether an applicant’s specific household situation exempts the home from the test altogether. For families trying to plan around a parent’s or spouse’s future care needs, getting that state-specific answer before a crisis, rather than during one, is usually the difference between an application that moves smoothly and one that stalls on a documentation dispute. It is also worth asking the caseworker directly which figure the state has adopted for the current year, since the underlying federal minimum and maximum both move every January and a number pulled from an old planning guide or a prior application can already be out of date by the time a new one is filed.
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by a human editor. Figures are linked to their primary sources; where a claim could not be verified from the public record, we say so.
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