Property sales price is public.

Up until the end of 2014, property sales prices could be withheld from public records.

If someone selling a property did not want the sales price to be disclosed, they just instructed the escrow officer to show the transfer tax amount on a separate page from the Grant Deed (the Grant Deed is public record).

Since January 1 of 2015, this is not going to be possible any longer: the hidden tax form will no longer be accepted by the County Recorder, regardless of when the documents were executed.  The tax amount will have to be shown on the Deed.

What newspapers do when they publish the recent real estate activity is this: they calculate the sales price from the Transfer Tax (when shown on the public document), and show the final sales price.  So from now on, it will not be possible to hide the sales price...

Thank for reading!
Francis

Silicon Valley real estate specialist
Detailed, local trends etc...
Current mortgage rates
A place worth noting: Our Brother's Home in MountainView