§ 704.730.Amount

This is the number homeowners in financial trouble search for first. California ties the automatic homestead exemption to local housing costs rather than a single flat figure. The exemption equals whichever is larger: the countywide median sale price for a single-family home in the calendar year before the debtor claims the exemption, capped at $600,000, or a flat $300,000 floor.

That structure means the exemption tracks a county's housing market up to a point. In an expensive county where home prices run high, the debtor gets closer to the $600,000 ceiling. In a county with a lower median, the debtor still gets no less than the $300,000 floor, even if the local median falls below that.

Both the ceiling and the floor move over time. Starting January 1, 2022, the statute requires an annual inflation adjustment tied to the California Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, measured over the most recent one-year period ending the prior December 31, with each new figure rounded to the nearest $25. Because these amounts are adjusted periodically, a debtor should confirm the current dollar figures being applied at the time of the claim rather than assume the numbers printed in an older source are still in effect.