Capitalizing

One also capitalizes a common noun when using that as a direct surrogate for the entity.

For example;

Excuse me, Counselor? Mr. President, what do you think of that? Thanks, Mom!

Counselor & President are both common nouns, but serving as a surrogate for a specific. Even mom and dad get that capitalization treatment when used as such and they're as common as mud.

With references to Homestead being used as a reference to the archetype in this article it's really not as inappropriate as Zugon seems to feel.

See the reference Ikkisuki posted, it even agrees; Common nouns may be capitalized when used as names for the entire class of something. Example: Some feel that Man is destined for outerspace!

Which is exactly why "your homestead" should not be capitalized.