Updated September 5, 2026. Quick answer: California’s own statute, Welfare and Institutions Code Section 14006.15, sets a home equity limit of $750,000 for nursing-home Medi-Cal eligibility, operative January 1, 2026. But this session could not find any evidence California is actually applying it: the statute conditions real enforcement on DHCS filing implementing regulations, which this session found no record of, and none of DHCS’s 2025-2026 eligibility notices mention it. The most accurate current answer for California is that the cap exists on paper but, as far as this session could confirm, not yet in practice.
What the California statute says
an individual is not eligible for medical assistance for home and facility care if their equity interest in the principal residence exceeds seven hundred fifty thousand dollars ($750,000)… This section shall become operative on January 1, 2026.
Get the house question looked at before it is urgent
Whether a home counts, and what happens to it afterwards, turns on facts about the household as well as on the state rule this page sets out, and an adviser can look at the property alongside the rest of the money before any of it has to be decided under time pressure.
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Why this page does not treat $750,000 as an operative limit
California’s statute is on the books and nominally operative, but this session could not find any evidence DHCS is actually applying it. The statute’s own text conditions real-world application on DHCS filing implementing regulations with the Secretary of State, a step this session found no record of. Six DHCS All County Welfare Directors Letters issued in 2025 and 2026 cover other asset-limit changes and never mention home equity or Section 14006.15 at all, and a 2025 legal-aid analysis states plainly that California has never imposed a home equity limit for long-term-care eligibility. The most accurate answer for California right now is not a dollar figure; it is that the cap exists in law but not, as far as this session could confirm, in practice.
| Citation | California Welfare and Institutions Code Section 14006.15 |
| What it says | “an individual is not eligible for medical assistance for home and facility care if their equity interest in the principal residence exceeds seven hundred fifty thousand dollars ($750,000)… This section shall become operative on January 1, 2026.” |
This page covers whether the home counts as a resource while you are alive and applying. What happens to the same house after death is a separate question: see the Medicaid estate recovery by state table, which gives California’s row for what the state can reach and the authority for it. And if a spouse, or a minor or disabled child, still lives in the home, the equity limit on this page does not apply at all: see what the law protects for a spouse who stays at home.
Every citation on this page was read directly from the state’s own Medicaid agency, administrative code, or official eligibility manual this session. General information, not legal or financial advice; a figure this specific can change with a budget cycle or a federal inflation adjustment, and a county or state caseworker has the final say on any individual application.