there re so many ways to deal with nursing home issues today depending on your state that i wouldn't consider a home as a reason .
the bigger problem is income to live on which unless negotiated out with medicaid can lead to impovershment for the stay at home spouse even with a home.
it is like long term care insurance can protect assets over a 5 year time frame so assets can be shifted. but at the end of 5 years while the assets are protected any attempt to live off of any income over the tiny limits results in it being put up for grabs by medicaid. few affordable policies go out longer than 5 years.
so far residents in ny ,ct and fla have been making good use of the just say no law and medicaid has been negotiating down to affordable rates.
but that is another topic.
The legal decisions on this are quite complex, as are the court cases where the "just say no" law has been enacted and challenged:
http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1245&context=elders
The real question about about the decision and forward planning really depends on the situation. I'll cite the situation of my own parents... second marriage for my mother. This was circa 1995, so the $$$ would be different.
My folks lived in Barrington RI, oceanside, in a cottage on the bay, which he bought in the 1930's for $6K. When my mom went into a nursing home, Earl, (my stepfather) was a moral, salt of the earth patriot, who vowed to pay her nursing home bills, from his small savings, and from selling the house, which had substantially increased in value. He planned to move in with my stepsister. We all went to an elderlaw lawyer who suggested that he stay in the house, and use his savings to pay the nursing home, until the savings ran out. My stepsister helped him live in the home, which he kept. My mom lived for about 5 years, the last four of which were paid for by medicaid... perhaps $350-400K as much extra care was involved.
When my mom passed away in 1995 at 84 years old, Earl still owned the home. He lived another 2 years, and when he passed away, the home went to his family, which really needed help. The selling price was about $800K in 2006, (more the value of the waterfront than the home) and in truth saved the lives and well being of that family, which was in serious health and financial troubles.
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The prequel to this was that my folks had considered selling for $200K and moving to a rental retirement home a few years before she became ill.
The dollars were different then... the laws somewhat different, but essentially the same as today...
In our case... (DW and I) we made the decision to include owning the home, as in a similar situation, the value would act as a cushion in the event our nest egg assets were to be depleted. (for many members with multi millions in assets, this would not be the same situation, but hopefully it would work for us.)
In any case, it could be worthwhile to look at this as an option. Less so for the "comfort value" of the home in the later years, and more as a factor in financial planning.