I guess I will try to answer this from the non ambiguous end of things and venture to say that its the types of sounds you use in the loop.

House tends to be a bit more organic with a very live, shuffled sort of feel to the loops...
Techno tends to have more synthesized or for lack of a better word, "industrial" type sounds, and has a bit more of a non-shuffled mechanical feel to it.

But yes.. it really is whatever you want it to be. One loop does not make or break a track.. its the combination of all of the elements involved.

Check my remix of Antonio's Repentence of Past Sins if you want to hear an example something that's vaguely "housey" or organic sounding.. but mashed and molded into techno.