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Comment by pixl97 | Hacker News Reader

>The buyer still might be borrowing the money

You're missing something that many/most states have laws that the seller/buyer must disclose, not the price the house is sold for, but how much of a loan was issued for the house. If they are not disclosing this then it's likely they are committing a crime by not doing so. The fact we are seeing larger amounts of 'paid in full' on houses is a significant anomaly and represents a change in market dynamics, and all changes in market behavior should be monitored. For example when we saw leading up to 2008 crash the "interest only loans", it was predicted by a sizeable number of people that a crash was happening 'soon', and in which it did.

Of course this varies by state, so other laws can apply.

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> many/most states have laws that the seller/buyer must disclose, not the price the house is sold for, but how much of a loan was issued for the house.

As far as I know, this is usually not true. Neither the buyer nor seller must disclose the existence of a loan on the property. For example, many loans are between family members who would prefer to keep them private, and the law allows that. Practically, however, any commercial lender (even a seller who offers financing) will record a mortgage with the county recorder so that he has priority in a foreclosure.

The sale price, however, usually is disclosed at least to the county assessor for property tax purposes. The exceptions would be where an heir inherits a property and the value is not reassessed.

Thanks, that would be a good theory that could be tested by comparing the number of houses sold with the number of loans reported, presuming constant levels of legal compliance. Do we see that? Perhaps we do, but the article seemed to focus on a real estate agent's anecdotes and impressions.

Also, would I be right to presume that this applies only to standard real estate loans? Are margin loans against stock required to be reported? Or private loans from parent to a child? I'd thought the reporting requirement had more to do with cases where the loan acts as a lien against the house.

Edit: Here's a Bogleheads thread that summarizes my understanding: https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=352355. It looks like in California markets (where the article is about) there are various companies that specialize in short term loans to enable "all cash offers".

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