Updated September 6, 2026. Quick answer: Colorado’s own most current operational guidance sets its Medicaid home equity limit for a single nursing-home applicant at $1,130,000 for 2026; the plain federal maximum under 42 U.S.C. Section 1396p(f), the same federal home equity ceiling this whole family of pages tracks, even though Colorado’s own codified regulation describes a different, state-specific $500,000-base formula that this session found no evidence is actually being applied. Above $1,130,000, you are not eligible for nursing-home Medicaid unless a spouse, minor child, or disabled child of any age lives in the home.
Why this page states the federal maximum, not a computed formula result
Colorado’s own codified regulation, 10 CCR 2505-10 Section 8.100.5.M, describes a DIFFERENT mechanism: a $500,000 base for 2006-2010, escalating annually by the percentage increase in the CPI-U, rounded to the nearest $1,000; its own formula, not a cross-reference to the federal ceiling. But Colorado’s own newest operational memo, HCPF OM 25-073, states the actual 2026 figure eligibility workers are told to use is $1,130,000; the plain federal maximum, the same number Washington and New York use for the identical federal rule, and a figure well above what a $500,000-base CPI-U computation would produce.
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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The genuine wrinkle this page discloses
This is a genuine discrepancy this session found and is disclosing, not resolving: Colorado’s own codified rule text describes one mechanism, and its own most current operational guidance to caseworkers states a different result. This page reports the number Colorado’s own December 2025 memo says to actually use, because that is what governs a live eligibility determination today, but does not claim to know why the codified formula and the applied number diverge.
| Citation | Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, Operational Memo HCPF OM 25-073, ‘2026 Social Security Cost of Living Adjustments,’ issued December 9, 2025 |
| What it says | “Home Equity Maximum … January 1, 2025 January 1, 2026 $1,097,000.00 $1,130,000” |
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 Colorado’s Medicaid estate recovery rules. 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.