[Jim-]

FWIW, I've had a similar experience. So I was curious who sold my information and did some digging (was it my realtor, insurance agent, or title agent?). I asked each of them, they all denied it, but told me:

When you buy a house, all your info is public information on your county's website (most up to date counties). Unfortunately, I don't think you can stop them from publishing that information and having bots scrape that data to send you junk mail.

[jedberg]

Most counties redact your name from their public website. But they don’t actually need that anyway. Your credit report has the address of the house and how much you owe on the mortgage.

And the credit agencies will sell your info to anyone.

[ehnto]

There are also call center programs that call specifically to fill in those details. You answer, they ask who they are speaking to, then click, they're gone.

[dredmorbius]

Source?

[vonmoltke]

> Most counties redact your name from their public website.

In what state? Dallas County (TX) and Broward County (FL) don't. Nor does New Jersey (we have a unified system for all 22 counties). In Dallas County I can even see the names of everyone who owned a property for the previous five years as well.

Edit: s/Not/Nor/

[jedberg]

In California I’ve never found a county that lists the property owner online. The only way to get the owner is to go to the county recorders office and look it up there.

[toast0]

Califironia has a law against state and local government displaying name and address of elected officials (and maybe some others?). California counties have decided it's easier to just not show any names on online property taz records than figure out who is an elected official.

[smt88]

Large, secured loans are recorded in public ledgers by law. I believe the motivation was to prevent people from going around and securing multiple loans with the same asset, before credit-scoring agencies existed.

[dragonwriter]

> Large, secured loans are recorded in public ledgers by law.

That's not true of “large, secured loans” in general.

OTOH, it is true of certain real property interests, including those of both owners and secured lenders; this is about the size of a secured loan, it's about clarity of title to real estate.

[smt88]

What large, secured loans are not a matter of public record under UCC[1]?

My understanding is that if it can be repossessed, the lender must have recorded the debt.

It applies to assets other than real estate, too.

[TuringNYC]

There is some value in a public record of whom owns what land. Minimally it would create stronger property rights where things can’t be sold twice over like they are in other countries. One might also want to know if the owners are foreign entities.

Of course wealthier owner get around this: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/08/nyregion/stream-of-foreig...