Politicians are using mortgage data against their enemies, so it’s time to figure out how much of it is available and what law-abiding citizens can do to shield it from prying eyes.
On Monday, President Trump said he was removing Lisa Cook from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. He has accused her of declaring both of her homes as her primary residence, which can be a form of mortgage fraud given that interest rates are often higher for vacation homes or investment properties. On Tuesday, her lawyer said she would sue over her dismissal.
Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, who asked the Department of Justice last week to investigate Ms. Cook, suggested this week that she wouldn’t be the last person to face such charges.
“There is too much mortgage fraud in Chicago,” he said on social media, calling out the city where Mr. Trump has threatened to send troops. Mr. Pulte also asked for tips on fraud from the public.
Ms. Cook also wasn’t the first public figure to come in for this scrutiny. Other Trump adversaries, including Letitia James, the attorney general of New York, and Senator Adam Schiff, Democrat of California, are facing similar inquiries. The Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, a Republican, has also had to answer for his housing records.
It wouldn’t be hard for self-styled detectives to try to uncover fraud or just pry into people’s finances. While rules vary by locality, at least some mortgage data is part of the public record in most places.
Here are some questions and answers about how it works.
What type of mortgage data is public?
A limited amount of information usually becomes part of the public record: the borrower’s name, the lender, the property address and the original loan amount, along with a history of refinancings or when the mortgage was paid off.
Most of that information shows up on the mortgage or on the so-called deed of trust (a legal agreement similar to a mortgage), which is recorded with the local county clerk’s office. There is often a document, or rider, that will indicate what the property is used for (a second home, for example, or a rental); if it’s a primary residence, lenders typically offer more favorable terms. If you want to look up your own mortgage data, start with an online search at your county’s website.
The public information about your property also includes the property taxes and whether it has a homestead exemption, which may provide legal protections and tax benefits to primary homeowners. In other words, you can’t have two homestead exemptions, explained Jo Ellen Bergstrom, a vice president at ATTOM, a real estate data company.
The public records would also reflect whether there were any liens against the property, or if a bank had foreclosed on a home, for example.
Can anyone look up my mortgage information?
Yes. It’s typically available, either online or in person, through the county clerk’s office (though municipal record-keepers may go by other names or have dedicated databases that compile property information).
Commercial services make it relatively easy and inexpensive for laypeople to look into the dealings of individuals or the goings-on at a particular address. One service — and app — called DataTree claims to call on billions of records. You can buy the most recent financing document for a property, for instance, for $8.
Is there anything I can do to strip my existing mortgage information from government and other databases?
DeleteMe, a company that helps people reduce the amount of publicly available data about themselves, often gets custom requests to strip mortgage data from the internet, said Rob Shavell, its chief executive. In some parts of the United States, privacy laws may allow certain categories of individuals — say law enforcement employees — to remove some data, he said.
If the property is owned by another legal entity, like a limited liability company, or L.L.C., that may shroud the owner’s name. But it’s still possible to search for mortgage data using the property’s address. So if someone knows where you live, that person can probably still dig up records even if your name is not mentioned.
And it can’t hurt to call your municipality and ask about any removal rules.
What type of mortgage information is kept private?
When you apply for a mortgage, the financial details you share with your institution — pay stubs, bank statements, tax forms, account balances and other sensitive personal information — are supposed to remain private.
A federal law requires banks to safeguard this information and provide consumers with an opportunity to opt out of sharing it with others. “Lenders are keeping that stuff under lock and key as best as possible,” said Matt Seguin, a senior principal in mortgage fraud solutions at Cotality, a property data and analytics firm.
The federal government collects an enormous amount of that sensitive information, in large part to ensure that banks aren’t engaging in discriminatory lending practices. That loan data, which is governed by another federal law, is often made public but without any identifying information.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the quasi-governmental entities that guarantee a near majority of U.S. mortgages, which are either held or packaged into bonds that are sold to investors.
It may be possible that Mr. Pulte and the F.H.F.A., as the overseer of these entities, had access to some of the private information on these types of loans. The agency’s Office of Inspector General sent a document demand to Fannie’s financial crimes investigation unit on July 14, for instance, seeking information about Senator Schiff.
The F.H.F.A. did not respond to inquiries seeking comment.
But it can also be relatively easy to find out if someone is not using a residence as his or her primary home, as Mr. Pulte alleged, through public records.
What type of mortgage fraud is perpetrated most frequently?
Mortgage fraud prosecutions have been relatively rare, historically, particularly for people who kept making payments.
There tends to be more fraud when qualifying for a mortgage becomes more difficult. Though levels have risen slightly, overall, just an estimated 0.86 percent of applications contained fraud during the second quarter of this year, according to Cotality, and it tends to occur more frequently with investment properties. One of the biggest increases involved undisclosed real estate debt.
Fannie Mae recently introduced a “crime detection unit” that will use Palantir, the data analysis and technology firm founded by Peter Thiel, to expand its fraud detection. The partnership extends Palantir’s reach across the U.S. government, an expansion that privacy experts and others have criticized because it makes it easier for the Trump administration to merge information on Americans across federal agencies.
What if I’m about to borrow money to buy a property? Is there anything I can do to keep my mortgage information private?
Here, too, much will depend on your region and its rules, and you’ll want to start the process with an experienced real estate lawyer.
It may be possible to buy the property with an L.L.C. or via a trust (or both, in combination), which could be a good idea for people in a variety of circumstances. But if your goal is primarily to keep your mortgage records private, keep several things in mind.
First, you’ll want to make that clear as day to your lawyer, your lender and anyone else involved in the process. Ask — repeatedly — if there is a way to structure the purchase so you can have as little data as possible enter the public realm.
Then consider the ongoing costs — not just the upfront ones, like lawyer fees — for the trust or L.L.C. Also, will you pay a higher mortgage interest rate this way, and are there any tax implications while you own or when you sell?
What’s the likelihood — really — that someone is going to try to use my mortgage information against me?
It’s above zero, and it will probably get higher before it gets lower, given that Mr. Pulte has issued a call for Americans to turn one another in, assuming hackers don’t stuff his email tip jar with spam. “We have seen just an insane amount of tips,” he told Bloomberg last week.
If you think you made a mistake with your mortgage and its associated documents — innocently or not — talk to a lawyer and possibly your lender. This goes doubly for any semipublic figures or people who find themselves in contentious situations at work and elsewhere.
Ron Lieber has been the Your Money columnist since 2008 and has written five books, most recently “The Price You Pay for College.”
Tara Siegel Bernard writes about personal finance for The Times, from saving for college to paying for retirement and everything in between.
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