Snap! Homestead exemption applies on Chapter 7 filing date.

Because the Texas homestead exemption, like the Texas exemption for retirement accounts, applies at the time a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition is filed, the Fifth Circuit rejected a trustee’s attempt to seize the proceeds from a sale of the debtor’s home. The Court concluded that a “snapshot” approach to the exemption, as it had previously used for retirement accounts, did not let the trustee reach the proceeds, concluding: “He is trying to transform the [proceeds rule] from one that extends the homestead exemption to some situations when the home is not owned on the filing date into one that limits the homestead exemption even when the debtor owns the home on the filing date.” Lowe v. DeBerry, No. 17-50315 (March 7, 2018).