Updated September 5, 2026. Quick answer: Illinois’s Medicaid home equity limit for a single nursing-home applicant is $752,000 as of 2026. Illinois’s own manual states this figure directly but does not call it a ‘minimum’ or ‘maximum’; this session confirms it matches the lower end of the federal range under 42 U.S.C. Section 1396p(f), roughly $378,000 below the $1,130,000 ceiling some other states elect. Above that figure, you are not eligible for nursing-home Medicaid unless a spouse, minor child, or disabled child of any age lives in the home.
What Illinois’s own document says
Illinois’s manual never uses the word ‘minimum’; it just republishes one running figure each year that happens to track the federal floor exactly.
Why this is the lower federal figure, not the higher one
Illinois’s manual states the dollar figure and its effective date, but never uses the words ‘minimum’ or ‘maximum.’ The number, $752,000 effective in 2026, matches the low end of the federal range under 42 U.S.C. Section 1396p(f), not the $1,130,000 ceiling some other states elect. This session classifies that as the federal minimum based on the dollar trajectory shown in the state’s own historical chart, not because the state’s document says so directly.
| Citation | Illinois Department of Human Services, Workers Action Guide WAG 25-03-02(2), ‘2026 Monthly Income Standards’ |
| What it says | “Home Equity Limit 595,000 603,000 636,000 688,000 713,000 730,000 752,000” |
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 the Medicaid estate recovery by state table, which gives Illinois’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.