Replacing debt in a 1031 exchange

[Liwen Gu]

I've been reading up on 1031 exchanges and I've been a little hung up on the replacement of debt and mortgage boot. So just as an example, let's say if you sell a house for $200,000 with $150,000 of your own equity and $50,000 of mortgage left on it. I know that usually people trade up and buy a property of equal or higher value but let's just say that you buy another property for $150,000 from the cash you received from the sale. Would you then be responsible for tax on the $50,000? Is there any way around that?