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The purpose of the Homestead Act of 1862 was to populate the frontier and foster economic growth in the United States. The Homestead Act offered settlers a total of 270 million acres of land, the majority of which was in the modern-day states of mainly Montana, North Dakota, Colorado, and Nebraska.
Requirements of the Homestead Act Land titles could also be purchased from the government for $1.25 per acre following six months of proven residency. Additional requirements included five years of continuous residence on the land, building a home on it, farming the land and making improvements.
To help develop the American West and spur economic growth, Congress passed the Homestead Act of 1862, which provided 160 acres of federal land to anyone who agreed to farm the land.
Homesteading is a lifestyle of self-sufficiency. It is characterized by subsistence agriculture, home preservation of food, and may also involve the small scale production of textiles, clothing, and craft work for household use or sale.
To protect the value of your property up to one million dollars ($1,000,000) per residence, per family, you must file a document called a “Declaration of Homestead”. You can file this form at the Registry of Deeds in the county or district where your property is located, referencing the title/deed to the property.
Specifically, homestead laws allow individuals to declare a portion of their property as "homestead" and therefore protected from a forced sale. Under New York's homestead protection law, the amount property owners may declare exempt varies based on county location and range from $75,000 to $150,000.
Exemption applications must be filed with your local assessor's office. See our Municipal Profiles for your local assessor's mailing address. Do not file any exemption applications with the NYS Department of Taxation and Finance or with the Office of Real Property Tax Services.
You must own the property and have an equity interest in it. This includes houses, condominiums, co-ops, and mobile homes. Your home equity must fall within the exemption limits for your county: $179,950 for the counties of Kings, Queens, New York, Bronx, Richmond, Nassau, Suffolk, Rockland, Westchester, and Putnam.
The Homestead Act, enacted during the Civil War in 1862, provided that any adult citizen, or intended citizen, who had never borne arms against the U.S. government could claim 160 acres of surveyed government land. Claimants were required to live on and “improve” their plot by cultivating the land.
The new law established a three-fold homestead acquisition process: file an application, improve the land, and file for deed of title. Any U.S. citizen, or intended citizen, who had never borne arms against the U.S. Government could file an application and lay claim to 160 acres of surveyed Government land.