Think Your Mortgage Is Private? Think Again

Sorry, you can't keep your loan amount a secret.

In February, the average home buyer who took out a mortgage borrowed $406,953, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Now, you may be looking to take out a home loan that's higher or lower than that average. But either way, you'd probably like your mortgage to be your business, and yours only, right?

Well, unfortunately, that's not how mortgages work. Mortgages are a matter of public record, so pretty much anyone can get a copy of your mortgage and see what your loan entails.

Bye bye, privacy

Many home buyers are shocked to learn that the sum they borrow to finance a home purchase is information anyone can be privy to. You can pretty much find mortgage information in any state, city, or county. But in some cases, looking it up may be more straightforward than in others.

Often, you'll need to access a county clerk's office to find mortgage records, and they're often available online. In some cases, though, you may need to make a phone call or visit a county clerk's office in person to get that information.

In reality, the fact that mortgages are public record shouldn't come as such a surprise. When you finalize a mortgage, you're required to pay closing costs on that loan. When you look at the breakdown of your closing costs, you'll generally see that one of the fees you're being charged is a recording fee. That's the cost of having your mortgage entered into public records. Incidentally, it's also an aspect of your closing costs that you generally can't negotiate, since your lender itself doesn't set that fee.

Your mortgage is public. Now what?

Some people have argued that mortgages should not be public record because it's an invasion of privacy. There's really nothing stopping your friends, for example, from doing some digging to find out how much you borrowed for your home. And your only consolation, if you want to call it that, is that you have the option to do the same thing back.

So where does that leave you? In a nutshell, stuck. But just as you'd probably want to respect your friends' privacy by not looking up their mortgage data, so, too, may they be inclined to respect yours.

Also, the reality is that home sale records themselves are public. Anyone can go onto Zillow, for example, and see what your home last sold for. So if a nosy person in your life enters your address and sees that you bought your home for $500,000, the fact that you borrowed $400,000 to do so may not come as such a shock.

Ultimately, buying a home can be a rewarding experience, but don't expect it to be a private one. Like it or not, people can look up your mortgage details. But in many cases, those who do are simply satisfying their curiosity. That may or may not give you some comfort, but it's better that you know how mortgage recordings work than remain in the dark.