How Much Home Equity Can You Keep in a Spokane Bankruptcy?

This is the question almost every homeowner asks first, and the honest answer is more favorable than most people expect. Washington has one of the most protective homestead exemptions in the country, and it has been since the statute was rewritten in 2021.

The part that trips people up is that the number is not fixed. It moves with your county's housing market, it changes every year, and a great deal of what is published about it — including on other law firm websites — is years out of date.

How much equity does Washington's homestead exemption protect?

RCW 6.13.030 sets the exemption as the greater of three possible amounts:

The $125,000 is a floor, not a cap. No Washington homeowner is protected for less than that figure regardless of where the property sits.

What is the homestead exemption in Spokane County?

It is the Spokane County median single-family sale price for the preceding calendar year. RCW 6.13.030(2) requires a court to use data from the Washington Center for Real Estate Research at the University of Washington, so that is the only source that governs — not a real estate portal, not an MLS summary, and not a figure quoted in an older article.

That distinction matters more than it sounds. Commonly cited estimates of the Spokane County median currently vary by close to a hundred thousand dollars depending on which commercial source you read, and none of them is the figure a court would apply. If your equity is anywhere near the line, the number has to come from the governing source and it has to be for the correct year.

We check the current figure as part of any consultation, because it is the difference between a home that is comfortably protected and one that is exposed.

Can I use the federal exemptions instead of Washington's?

Yes. Washington is not an opt-out state, so someone filing here may use either the Washington exemptions or the federal exemptions under 11 U.S.C. section 522(d). You have to pick one set — you cannot take the homestead from one list and the vehicle exemption from the other.

For a Spokane homeowner with real equity, the Washington list is almost always stronger, because the federal homestead figure is a fraction of a county median. For a renter, or someone with little equity in their home, the federal list can work out better because its wildcard is more generous.

Federal figures are the amounts set by the Judicial Conference effective 1 April 2025, which apply to cases filed through 31 March 2028 and are then adjusted again. The gap on the homestead is the whole story for a Spokane homeowner: $31,575 against a county median figure several times that.

Can a married couple claim the exemption twice?

The Western District of Washington's own guidance states that when a married couple files together the exemptions are doubled. Some published sources take a narrower view specifically on the homestead. Because the difference is substantial for a couple with equity, this is worth confirming for your circumstances rather than assuming either way.

Do I have to have lived in Washington to use the Washington exemption?

You must have been domiciled in Washington for the 730 days immediately before filing. If you were not, the law looks to the state where you were domiciled for the greater part of the 180 days before that 730-day period, and that state's exemptions may apply instead.

This catches people who moved to Spokane recently from Idaho or Montana and assume Washington law governs because Washington is where they live now. If you have been here less than two years, the date you established residency needs to be looked at before you assume anything about your equity.

Is there a limit if I bought the house recently?

Yes. Under 11 U.S.C. section 522(p), homestead protection is capped at $214,000 for a home acquired within 1,215 days — roughly forty months — before filing. That figure applies to cases filed between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2028, and is adjusted every three years. The same $214,000 cap applies under section 522(q) where there has been bankruptcy fraud or certain other misconduct.

So a Spokane homeowner who bought three years ago and has substantial equity may be limited to $214,000 even where the county figure is higher. If you bought recently, the acquisition date and the filing date should be reviewed together, because in some cases waiting changes the outcome.

Does the exemption protect my house, or my equity?

Your equity, not the house itself. Equity is what would be left after the mortgage and any liens are subtracted from what the home would actually sell for.

A Chapter 7 trustee looking at a Spokane home is asking one question: if I sold this, would anything be left for creditors after the mortgage, the liens, the homestead exemption, the cost of sale and the trustee's commission? If the answer is no, the home is not worth pursuing and you keep it while continuing to pay the mortgage. If the answer is yes, the equity above the exemption is exposed — and that is usually the point at which Chapter 13 becomes the better route, because it lets you keep the property and pay the non-exempt value over time.

Do I need to file anything to claim the homestead exemption?

Not in the ordinary case. Homestead protection attaches automatically once you occupy the property as your principal residence. There is no county office that reviews eligibility and no form to submit for a normal owner-occupied home.

In a bankruptcy, though, exemptions are not automatic — they have to be claimed correctly on your schedules. That is a separate question from whether the homestead exists, and it is where the mistakes happen.

Sources

• RCW 6.13.030 — Homestead exemption amount (Washington State Legislature)
• RCW 6.15.010 — Personal property exemptions (Washington State Legislature)
• Exemptions (Property You Can Keep) — U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Western District of Washington
• 11 U.S.C. § 522 — Exemptions, including the Judicial Conference dollar adjustments effective 1 April 2025
• Washington Center for Real Estate Research — county median home prices

Frequently asked questions