About the Eddy County Clerk
Eddy County was organized in 1889 and named for Charles B. Eddy, a rancher and town promoter who -- working with former sheriff Pat Garrett -- built an ambitious irrigation canal system along the Pecos River and platted the town of Eddy as its centerpiece. That townsite was renamed Carlsbad in 1899 after the Bohemian spa town of Karlsbad, whose mineral springs its founders believed matched the local water, and it became the county seat. The county's identity was reshaped again in 1923 when local ranchers exploring a cave system southwest of town helped bring national attention to what became Carlsbad Caverns National Park, and again through the 20th century as oil, natural gas, and vast potash deposits turned the area into one of New Mexico's most productive energy and mining regions. Eddy County is also home to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, a federal deep-underground repository for transuranic nuclear waste operating in ancient salt beds east of Carlsbad since 1999, which remains a major local employer alongside the oil and potash industries.
Cities and Communities Served
Recording jurisdiction runs countywide, not by city limits — if the property sits anywhere within Eddy County, this is the Eddy County Clerk that will accept the deed. That includes:
Incorporated cities: Carlsbad (county seat), Artesia, Loving, Hope.
Unincorporated communities: Malaga, Loco Hills, Whites City, Atoka.
Office Details
Address: 325 S Main Street, Carlsbad, NM 88220
Phone: (575) 885-3383
Hours: Monday - Friday, 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Recording Fee: New Mexico charges a flat, statute-set recording fee per document, with an added fee once a document runs past a set number of index entries -- not a percentage of the property's value. Contact the county clerk's office for current amounts.
E-recording: Eddy County is part of the CSC eRecording network, allowing deeds and other real property documents to be submitted electronically.
Good to know before you go: Eddy County keeps a smaller satellite clerk's office in Artesia (602 S 1st Street) with limited hours -- Monday 1:00-5:00 p.m. and Tuesday through Friday 8:00 a.m.-noon -- but the office's own guidance is that all document recording should be sent to the main Carlsbad office rather than the Artesia location.
How to File a Document
- Sign in Front of a Notary -- In Person or Remotely: New Mexico requires the grantor's signature to be acknowledged before a notary public before the Eddy County Clerk will accept a deed for recording. New Mexico has permitted remote online notarization on a permanent basis since January 1, 2022, under the state's Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts (NMSA 1978, Sections 14-14A-1 to 14-14A-32) -- the notary handling it must be commissioned and physically located in New Mexico at the time, even if you're signing from somewhere else.
- Attach a Full Legal Description, Not Just an Address: A street address alone won't satisfy New Mexico's requirements -- the deed needs the property's actual legal description (a metes-and-bounds description, a government survey reference, or a platted lot and block, depending on how the parcel was originally surveyed and subdivided), plus a reference to the prior deed that brought the property into the grantor's name, to keep the chain of title intact. You can usually copy the legal description directly from the deed that transferred the property to you.
- Get Both Spouses to Sign if It's Community Property: New Mexico is a community property state, and state law (NMSA 1978, Section 40-3-13) generally requires both spouses to join in a deed transferring community real property -- even when only one spouse's name appears on the title. Skipping the second signature doesn't necessarily void the transfer outright, but it leaves the deed open to being challenged, so it's worth confirming with the Eddy County Clerk or an attorney whether your specific situation calls for both signatures before you file.
- File a Real Property Transfer Declaration Affidavit With the Assessor: For most residential property transfers, New Mexico law (NMSA 1978, Section 7-38-12.1) also requires a separate Real Property Transfer Declaration Affidavit to be filed with the county assessor's office -- not the Eddy County Clerk -- within thirty days of recording the deed. It's a distinct step from recording itself, used to keep the assessor's records current for property tax purposes, and the assessor's office can supply the current form.
- Record With the County Clerk: Bring, mail, or (where the county supports it) e-file the signed, notarized deed with the Eddy County Clerk for the county where the property sits. New Mexico charges a flat, statute-set recording fee per document, with an added fee once a document runs past a set number of index entries -- never a percentage of the property's value -- and the state has no separate real estate transfer tax on top of it. The first page needs roughly an inch and a half of blank space at the top for the clerk's recording stamp, with the document's title placed just below it.
Still Have Questions About Filing With the Eddy County Clerk?
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Other Counties in New Mexico
Filing somewhere else in the state? Here are a few other county pages:
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