About the Luna County Clerk
Luna County split off from Grant and Dona Ana counties in 1901, ending two decades of rivalry between Deming and Silver City -- both then part of Grant County -- over which town should hold county-seat status. The new county was named for Solomon Luna, a wealthy Los Lunas rancher, banker, and Republican power broker whose political support was key to getting the split approved by the territorial legislature. Deming, the county seat, was founded in 1881 at the junction of the Southern Pacific and Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroads and named for Mary Deming Crocker, wife of a railroad financier; the town's status as a rail crossroads made it a shipping point for cattle and, later, cotton and chile grown with Mimbres Valley groundwater. The county's other incorporated town, Columbus, sits directly on the Mexican border and is remembered as the site of Pancho Villa's 1916 raid into United States territory, the only such attack on American soil during the Mexican Revolution -- a history preserved today at Pancho Villa State Park. Luna County's economy today mixes irrigated agriculture in the Mimbres Basin with ranching across its broad desert grasslands, and its position on Interstate 10 near the Arizona border and the Mexican port of entry at Columbus keeps cross-border trade and travel part of daily life.
Cities and Communities Served
Recording jurisdiction runs countywide, not by city limits — if the property sits anywhere within Luna County, this is the Luna County Clerk that will accept the deed. That includes:
Incorporated cities: Deming (county seat), Columbus.
Unincorporated communities: Akela, Florida, Hermanas, Mimbres, Nutt, Old Town.
Office Details
Address: 700 South Silver Avenue, Deming, NM 88030
Phone: (575) 546-0491
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: Luna County is part of the Simplifile e-recording network, so deeds prepared through a participating title company or attorney can often be submitted electronically rather than by mail or in person.
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 Luna 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 Luna 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 Luna 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 Luna 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 Luna 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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