Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

First, you need to be clear that in California there are two kinds of homestead exemption. One is the so-called automatic exemption, which exempts certain property from levy and execution to satisfy judgments. The other is known as a declared homestead. It is not automatic; you get it by preparing a recording a relatively simple declaration with the county recorder.

The protections afforded to a debtor more or less overlap, but not entirely. Therefore, most folks who are apprehensive about getting hit with a judgment are well advised to file the declared homestead before it's too late.

As I understand it, the automatic homestead covers, to some extent, the owner's equity in his or her principal residence, whether it is a house, trailer, manufactured home, boat or whatever.

However, a declared homestead cannot be recorded on anything that is not real property. A mobile home is not real property until it is affixed to a foundation and accepted as real property by local authorities. While it remains subject to DMV rules and is essentially a vehicle, it cannot be protected by a declared homestead.