A.R.S. 33-1101: The Arizona Homestead Exemption Explained

Arizona automatically shields a large chunk of the equity in your main home from most creditors. Under A.R.S. 33-1101, that homestead exemption protects $400,000 of value in the place you live, and the figure climbs every year with inflation. If a creditor wins a money judgment against you, they generally cannot seize that protected equity or force a sale of your home to reach it.

How much equity is protected

The exemption covers $400,000 of value in your primary residence, and it protects that equity from three specific creditor moves: attachment, execution, and forced sale. Here is who the law gives it to:

Any person who is at least eighteen years of age, married or single, and who resides within this state may hold as a homestead exempt from attachment, execution and forced sale.

Read the word "equity" carefully. The homestead protects your stake in the home, which is the market value minus what you still owe on it, not the full sale price. If your house is worth $700,000 with a $350,000 loan, your equity is $350,000, and all of it sits under the current $400,000 shield. Build equity past the exemption amount and only the slice above the line is exposed to an ordinary judgment creditor.

Who qualifies and what property counts

Any Arizona resident at least 18 years old, married or single, gets one homestead on the home they live in. The property can take almost any common form: a house on land you own, a condominium or cooperative, or a mobile home, park model, motor home, travel trailer, fifth wheel, houseboat, or manufactured home, along with the land it sits on. You have to actually reside there. The one hard limit is quantity:

Only one homestead exemption may be held by a married couple or a single person under this section.

That last line trips people up. A married couple does not stack two exemptions for $800,000. They share one. And you cannot spread the homestead across a primary home and a vacation place. It attaches to the single residence where you live.

The protected amount rises every year

The $400,000 base is not frozen. It steps up each January for the cost of living:

...shall be adjusted annually beginning on January 1, 2024 and thereafter on January 1 of each successive year by the increase in the cost of living...

The adjustment tracks the Consumer Price Index, measured August over August, and rounds up to the nearest $100. Arizona voters set the $400,000 base through Proposition 209 in 2022, raising it from the old $250,000. Because of the yearly bump, the amount actually protected in the current year runs somewhat higher than $400,000. The statute page prints the $400,000 base rather than each year's computed figure, so confirm the exact current-year number before you rely on a precise amount.

What it means for your build

Say you finish a custom home in Cave Creek worth $900,000 with a $500,000 construction-to-permanent loan, leaving $400,000 of equity. If an unrelated creditor, such as the winner of a business lawsuit, gets a judgment against you, the homestead shields that $400,000 of equity, so they generally cannot force a sale to collect. The exemption is automatic, so you do not file anything to claim it on your main home. What it does not do is stop a creditor you agreed to pay, like your mortgage lender, or a construction lien, which is exactly where A.R.S. 33-1103 draws the lines.

How this connects to lien law

The homestead is a shield against general judgment creditors, and it sits beside the construction-lien protections in this module. It is not the same as the owner-occupied dwelling lien exemption in A.R.S. 33-1002, which blocks certain subcontractor liens rather than shielding equity. A valid mechanics lien under A.R.S. 33-981 is one of the debts the homestead does not stop. The exceptions and the creditor-sale procedure live in sections 33-1103 and 33-1105. You can read the exemption amount, the eligible persons, and the annual-adjustment rule at View A.R.S. 33-1101 on azleg.gov.

Because the homestead only guards equity up to the yearly figure, the number that matters to you is your equity, not your home's price. For instance, hold that same Cave Creek home at $900,000 and pay the construction loan down to $350,000. Equity is then $550,000, so the homestead covers $400,000 of it and leaves $150,000 above the line, where an ordinary judgment creditor can reach it.