A house worth $800,000 does not have to be sold to qualify for Medicaid in Florida. That single fact surprises most new residents, and it is usually the first thing Central Florida elder law attorney John Marshall has to correct when a family walks into his office.
Florida Is Not Like the State You Moved From
Most people who ask about Medicaid in Florida come from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri, New York, or New Jersey, and they arrive with assumptions built on those states’ rules. In many of those states, qualifying for Medicaid means spending down nearly everything, including the family home. Florida works differently. The state has a strong incentive to preserve assets, particularly when one spouse needs care and the other does not, and the homestead exemption is the clearest example of that difference.
What Actually Counts as an Asset
Florida Medicaid caps countable assets at $2,000 and gross income at $2,982 a month in 2026. The home is not counted toward that limit, and neither is a car, regardless of value or make. A $200,000 Ferrari sitting in a garage is treated the same way as a $15,000 sedan. The home falls into that same exempt category under Article 10, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution, which protects a homestead up to one half acre inside city limits or 160 acres outside it.
The Equity Cap, and the Fix for It
The homestead exemption has one real limit: equity cannot exceed $737,000, adjusted annually for inflation. A home valued above that number is not automatically disqualifying. Families can take out a home equity line of credit to pull cash out and lower the equity below the cap, then use that cash for exempt purposes like a caregiver agreement, while the mortgage-style payments keep the equity from climbing back over the line before eligibility is established.
Who Can Actually Take the House
Only three creditors can reach a Florida homestead: the IRS, the county for unpaid property taxes, and a secured lienholder such as a mortgage or HELOC lender. Medicaid is not on that list. A hospital system owed a million dollars cannot touch the house. Neither can a personal injury judgment. That protection holds even after the homeowner moves into assisted living, because Florida courts look at intent to return, not physical ability to return. A person with dementia who cannot express any intent still keeps the home as a homestead, because nothing shows they intended to abandon it.
Where Estate Plans Go Wrong
The most common way families lose this protection is through outdated paperwork. A will or trust drafted in another state before a move to Florida often includes language directing that all assets, including the house, be sold. That single line can void homestead protection after death under Florida law, exposing the home to Medicaid recovery it would otherwise have avoided. Updating an estate plan after relocating to Florida is not optional paperwork. It is the difference between a family keeping a $370,000 house or losing it entirely.
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