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The U.S. Treasury Department, under Secretary Scott Bessent, has introduced a new rule through FinCEN to combat money laundering in residential real estate, focusing on high-risk all-cash transactions involving legal entities like trusts and LLCs. The regulation, effective from December 1, 2025, aims to increase transparency and reduce illicit activities but will not impact typical home sales or most individual all-cash purchases.
Key takeaways
- The new FinCEN rule targets high-risk all-cash entity or trust transactions, requiring reporting to FinCEN, but does not apply to individual buyers of residential properties.
- Settlement agents, title insurance companies, and attorneys are responsible for reporting high-risk transactions, enhancing compliance costs and transparency in real estate deals.
- The rule mandates reporting for nonfinanced residential property transfers to legal entities or trusts, covering both domestic and foreign entities, with exemptions for specific types of transfers.
- Approximately a third of U.S. home sales in the first half of 2025 were all-cash transactions, with states like Mississippi and New Mexico seeing the highest share of such sales due to relatively low property prices.
- Legal entities, including LLCs and trusts, were involved in around 13% of residential property purchases in the U.S. in 2024, highlighting the prevalence of using legal structures in real estate transactions.
This summary has been generated with AI tools and edited by Realtor.com News & Insights editors. The full story, written and edited by Realtor.com News & Insights newsroom journalists, is linked at the top of the summary.