North Dakota Homestead Credit Explained: What Homeowners Need to Know in 2026

North Dakota’s homestead credit (N.D.C.C. § 57-02-08.1) cuts the taxable valuation of a home owned by someone 65 or older or permanently and totally disabled: 100% up to $9,000 of taxable value at income of $40,000 or less, 50% up to $4,500 at $40,001–$70,000. The 2026 application went to the local assessor before April 1.

That credit is means-tested and age-tested. A second, newer program, the Primary Residence Credit (§ 57-02-08.9), has neither test and is worth up to $1,600. A third statute, chapter 47-18, uses the word “homestead” for something else entirely: protection of home equity from judgment creditors. Each is covered below with its own rules.

What § 57-02-08.1 takes off the assessment

The credit is a reduction of taxable valuation, not a check. The Office of State Tax Commissioner translates the two income tiers into market value as well:

These tiers have applied since the 2023 assessment, per the Tax Commissioner’s guideline. “Income” means income for the most recent complete year from all sources, including a dependent’s income, public assistance, Social Security and other retirement benefits, minus medical expenses paid by the applicant or a dependent that insurance did not cover. Federal rent subsidies and amounts excluded from income by federal or state law (other than Social Security) are left out. A married applicant also counts the spouse: the 2026 form asks for “total income from both applicant and spouse for 2025,” and the guideline drops a spouse’s income only when the spouse is not dependent on the applicant and a premarital agreement eliminates spousal support. The Commissioner’s page adds: “There is no asset limitation for homeowners.”

Conditions written into the section itself:

• People residing together as spouses, or where one is a dependent of another, get one exemption between them. Co-owners residing together who are not spouses or dependents of each other, such as a parent and a non-dependent adult child on the same title, each get a share of a full exemption equal to their ownership interest.
• The credit keeps applying while the owner is in a nursing home, hospital or other care facility, as long as the owner’s part of the home is not rented to someone else.
• It does not reduce special assessments.
• It ends at the end of the taxable year in which the applicant dies.
• A home that is an exempt farm residence under § 57-02-08(15) gets no credit under this section.

The Commissioner’s guideline accepts a home held in a revocable trust and rejects one held in an irrevocable trust. It also says the credit “is portable and may be applied to the recipient’s new homestead” after a sale.

Form SFN 24757 and the April 1 date

The application is the Tax Commissioner’s “Homestead Credit Application for Senior Citizens & Disabled Persons,” SFN 24757. It is filed with the local assessor or county director of tax equalization, not with the state. The 2026 form reads “Send application to your local assessor prior to April 1, 2026,” and it asks for 2025 income. A disabled applicant attaches a physician’s certificate or a written disability determination from the Social Security Administration or another authorized agency.

Missed the date? Section 57-02-08.2(5) refers to an “application for abatement filed by a person because the exemption provided for in section 57-02-08.1 was not allowed in whole or in part.” Abatement applications go to the county auditor under § 57-23-04, “on or before November first of the year following the year in which the tax becomes delinquent.”

The $1,600 Primary Residence Credit

House Bill 1176 (2025) set the credit at “one thousand six hundred dollars,” and its current text of § 57-02-08.9 took effect for taxable years beginning after December 31, 2025. The credit cannot exceed the tax on the parcel. It is applied after other exemptions and credits, and it does not touch special assessments. The Tax Commissioner’s page: “There are no age restrictions or income limitations for this credit.”

• Where to apply: the Tax Commissioner, online only, at tax.nd.gov/prc. Not the assessor.
• When: § 57-02-01.2 requires filing “by April first of each year”; the Commissioner’s window is January 1 through April 1. For a home taxed as real estate, an application filed in 2026 covers the 2026 tax statement mailed in December 2026. For a mobile home taxed under chapter 57-55, the statute applies it to the following taxable year, so a 2026 application reduces the 2027 tax.
• Who: an owner (fee simple, life estate or other terminable present interest, contract-for-deed purchaser, or beneficiary of a qualifying trust; not a tenant or someone with a mere right of occupancy) who occupies the dwelling as a primary residence as of the assessment date. A dwelling exempt from property tax as a farm residence does not qualify. An owner confined in a nursing home, hospital or other care facility keeps the primary residence as long as the owner’s part of the home is not rented to another person. One primary residence per individual and one credit per parcel, and the Commissioner allows one credit per household. A trust may claim it for only one parcel.
• A qualifying trust is one whose instrument gives the trustor or a beneficiary the right to live in the home rent-free (except taxes and listed costs) for life, for the lesser of life or a term of years, or until the trust is revoked. The trust must also hold title under a recorded instrument that identifies the property.
• A sale after approval does not cancel the credit for that year. Any proration between buyer and seller uses the tax after the credit.

Both credits can land on one bill. The Commissioner’s FAQ: a homeowner approved for the homestead or disabled veterans credit who “still ha[s] a balance due” can receive the Primary Residence Credit on the remainder.

Disabled veterans: § 57-02-08.8

A veteran with a service-connected disability rating of 50% or more, or with an individual-unemployability rating paid at the 100% rate, qualifies if discharged under honorable conditions or retired. So does the surviving spouse. The credit applies to the first $9,000 of the homestead’s taxable valuation at the veteran’s disability percentage. A surviving spouse receiving VA dependency and indemnity compensation gets 100%. A first-time claimant files an affidavit and a VA disability certificate with the county auditor.

Chapter 47-18: the creditor homestead

Separate law, separate purpose. Under § 47-18-01 the home, its land and improvements are “exempt from judgment lien and from execution or forced sale” up to $150,000 in value “over and above liens or encumbrances.” Senate Bill 2206 (2023) raised that figure from $100,000; the Legislative Council lists its effective date as July 1, 2023. Tracts count only if contiguous. Under § 47-18-17, “A failure to make such declaration shall not impair the homestead right.”

Section 47-18-04 lists the judgments the homestead does not stop:

1. Debts secured by mechanics’, construction or laborers’ liens for work or material furnished exclusively to improve the homestead.
2. Debts secured by a mortgage on the premises “executed and acknowledged by both husband and wife, or an unmarried claimant.”
3. Debts created to buy it, and “all taxes accruing and levied thereon.”
4. All other debts, when a court appraisal under § 47-18-06 finds value above $150,000 over liens, and only to the extent of that excess.

If the home is sold or conveyed, the proceeds up to the exemption keep the same protection for one year (§ 47-18-16). A married owner’s homestead cannot be conveyed or encumbered unless both spouses sign and acknowledge (§ 47-18-05).

Questions North Dakota owners ask

I closed on a house in June 2026. Can I get either credit this year?

Not as a new applicant. Both key off the February 1 assessment date and an April 1 filing date. The homestead credit guideline requires an interest in the property “as of the assessment date,” and the primary residence test is applied “as of the assessment date of the taxable year.” Two carry-overs still work. An owner who already had the homestead credit on the home sold can move it: the guideline calls it “portable,” and its example splits one year’s credit between the old and new homes by months. If the seller’s Primary Residence Credit was approved for 2026, it stays with the parcel “without regard to any change of ownership,” and any buyer–seller proration uses the tax after the credit. For 2027, the Primary Residence Credit window is January 1 through April 1, 2027, and the homestead credit application goes to the assessor ahead of the April 1 date on the 2027 form.

My spouse is 66 and I am 61. Who applies?

The spouse who is 65 or older. The guideline says a couple living together gets one credit, and “the spouse who is 65 years of age or older is eligible to apply.”

Does the $1,600 credit need a new application every year?

Yes. The Tax Commissioner describes it as a credit homeowners “apply annually” for. Section 57-02-01.2 sets the filing “by April first of each year,” and an approved certification covers “the entire taxable year for which the application for certification was approved.”

Can a judgment creditor force the sale of my house?

For most judgments, only if a court appraisal under § 47-18-06 finds equity above $150,000 over liens, and then only for that excess. Three kinds of debt in § 47-18-04 reach the home without that limit: liens for work or material furnished exclusively to improve it, a mortgage executed and acknowledged by both spouses (or by an unmarried claimant), and debts for its purchase and the taxes levied on it.

Related: North Dakota property tax explained, North Dakota overview, property tax calculator, Arkansas homestead credit and the state-by-state homestead guide. Sources: N.D.C.C. ch. 57-02, ch. 47-18, Tax Commissioner: homestead credit, Primary Residence Credit.