A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to increase the statutory homestead exemption.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 1C‑1601(a)(1) reads as rewritten:
"§ 1C‑1601.  What property exempt; waiver; exceptions.
(a)	Exempt property. – Each individual, resident of this State, who is a debtor is entitled to retain free of the enforcement of the claims of creditors:
(1)	The debtor's aggregate interest, not to exceed thirty‑five thousand dollars ($35,000) in value, in real property or personal property that the debtor or a dependent of the debtor uses as a residence, in a cooperative that owns property that the debtor or a dependent of the debtor uses as a residence, or in a burial plot for the debtor or a dependent of the debtor; however, an unmarried debtor who is 65 years of age or older is entitled to retain an aggregate interest in the property not to exceed sixty thousand dollars ($60,000) in value so long as the property was previously owned by the debtor as a tenant by the entireties or as a joint tenant with rights of survivorship and the former co‑owner of the property is deceased.
…."
SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective December 1, 2009.