46th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2003

RELATING TO REAL PROPERTY; INCREASING THE VALUE OF A HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION; AMENDING A SECTION OF THE NMSA 1978.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

Section 1. Section 42-10-9 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1971, Chapter 215, Section 6, as amended) is amended to read:

"42-10-9. HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION.--[Each] A person shall have exempt a homestead in a dwelling house and land occupied by him or in a dwelling house occupied by him although the dwelling is on land owned by another, provided that the dwelling is owned, leased or being purchased by the person claiming the exemption. [Such] A person has a homestead [of thirty thousand dollars ($30,000)] exempt from attachment, execution or foreclosure by a judgment creditor and from any proceeding of receivers or trustees in insolvency proceedings and from executors or administrators in probate [If the homestead is owned jointly by two persons, each joint owner is entitled to an exemption of thirty thousand dollars ($30,000)] to the following extent:

(1) if located outside a municipality, to the extent of one hundred sixty acres of contiguous land and improvements on the land, which shall not be reduced without the owner's consent due to subsequent inclusion within a municipality; or

(2) if located within a municipality, to the extent of one-half acre of contiguous land, upon which the exemption shall be limited to the residence."