Alameda County tax sales, California

Verified

Alameda sells on Bid4Assets in the spring, usually March. The last sale began Friday, March 20, 2026, with 92 parcels offered and 23 sold according to a statewide calendar summary of the county sale, and the 2026 terms show bidding closing March 23, 2026. The county FAQ and the 2026 Bid4Assets terms are the verified source for the deposit, payment, and reoffer facts in this entry, but no dated sale for 2027 was published on the county tax defaulted land pages. Alameda states plainly that no counties in California sell tax certificates, and that property is sold as is with all sales final.

Selling office: Alameda County Treasurer Tax Collector

Next sale: No dated sale published as of November 9, 2026. The pattern is an annual spring sale, usually March. The last dated sale began Friday, March 20, 2026 on Bid4Assets. No dated sale for 2027 was published as of November 9, 2026.

Alameda is a small, mostly vacant land sale: 92 parcels offered and 23 sold in March 2026. Its buyers are mostly looking at unimproved land with no street address, so assessor plat maps and a title search matter more here than in a sale of improved houses.

Dates and deadlines

Next sale	No dated sale published as of November 9, 2026
Sale date and pattern	Annual spring sale on Bid4Assets, usually March. The 2026 sale began Friday, March 20, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. Pacific Time and began closing Monday, March 23, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time, with the final wave closing at 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time.
The list	The preview list is published on Bid4Assets and updated daily as redemptions are made; the FAQ warns that nothing in the preview list is guaranteed and bidders must check Bid4Assets for updates. The Tax Collector may remove properties during and after the auction. A list cost is not published in the FAQ read November 9, 2026.
Registration and deposit	Bid4Assets registers bidders; the Tax Collector office will not register bidders or accept bids. A bidder deposit of $5,000 plus any costs required by Bid4Assets is required, stated as a $5,000 paddle deposit plus a $35 non refundable Bid4Assets fee in the 2026 additional terms of sale.
Minimum bid and how bidding works	All parcels are sold by auction ID. State law sets the minimum bid as no less than the total amount to redeem the delinquent taxes plus costs, and each raise follows predetermined increments until the close of auction on Bid4Assets. Proxy bidding is available, and bidders without internet access may call the Bid4Assets number in the FAQ.
Redemption before the sale	The right to redeem ceases at 5:00 p.m. on the last business day prior to the sale, which was Thursday, March 19, 2026 for the 2026 sale. There is no extended right of redemption in California.
Reoffer	Unsold properties will be offered at subsequent tax sales until redeemed or sold, per the county FAQ, and cannot be purchased directly from the county. A reduced minimum reoffer rule is not stated on the FAQ page read November 9, 2026; under Section 3698.5(c) such a reduced minimum is available to the collector, with board approval, after a parcel has been offered once with no acceptable bid.
Format	Online internet auction: Bid4Assets
Selling office	Alameda County Treasurer Tax Collector

Sources: Alameda County Treasurer Tax Collector, Tax Defaulted Land FAQs. Alameda County, 2026 Additional Terms of Sale on Bid4Assets. Confirm with the selling office before relying on any date on this page: sales move, terms change, and parcels are pulled up to sale day.

Research Alameda County parcels before you bid

A sale list gives you the parcels, the date, and the opening terms. It does not give you the owner, the value, or the rest of the picture: liens, foreclosure status, and parcel history. PropertyRadar is the data platform for that layer. It carries owner records, assessed and market values, foreclosure and tax data, and property history for parcels across Alameda County, searchable by address, owner, or county, including parcels that never reach a sale list.

Open a PropertyRadar account See plans and pricing

Pine and Brass is a PropertyRadar partner. If you open an account through these links, we may earn a commission; it does not change the price you pay.

How California tax defaulted property sales work

Default runs on a five year clock. Property taxes that go unpaid become tax defaulted. After five years of default (three years for nonresidential commercial property and the other classes the code names), the property becomes subject to the tax collector's power to sell under Revenue and Taxation Code Section 3691. Until that clock runs, there is nothing to buy: California sells no tax liens.
The county sets a Chapter 7 auction. With the board of supervisors' approval, the tax collector publishes notice and offers the property at public auction under Chapter 7 of Part 6. The minimum price is set by Section 3698.5(a): not less than the total amount necessary to redeem the property, plus costs. Most of the counties in this set now sell online under the electronic auction provisions (Section 3692.2); the county's own tax sale page names the platform and the terms.
The owner can stop the sale until the last business day. Redemption stays open until the close of business on the last business day before the sale begins (Section 3707), and a redemption in full ends the power to sell that parcel. Parcels are pulled right up to that deadline, so a list researched a week out is not the list that sells.
The sale is an auction of the property itself. The highest bidder at or above the minimum wins. Counties gate bidding behind a refundable deposit funded days ahead, and winning bids are due in full on the deadline the county terms set, usually within days of the close. A winner who does not pay forfeits the deposit and the parcel returns to inventory.
The buyer receives a tax deed, and unsold parcels come back as reoffers. The tax collector issues a tax deed under Section 3712; there is no redemption after the sale. A parcel that draws no bid at the minimum is not finished: under Section 3698.5 the tax collector may offer it again, including at a reduced minimum, and Chapter 8 (Section 3771 and following) routes some properties to public agencies and nonprofits instead. The leftover channel in California is a second, cheaper auction, and it is part of the pricing decision on the first one.

How bidding works in Alameda County

Register with Bid4Assets at bid4assets.com, following the full instructions on the Bid4Assets site and the county tax defaulted land FAQ at treasurer.acgov.org. The county office does not register bidders, accept bids, or answer bidding questions; those go to Bid4Assets at (877) 427-7387. Arrange the deposit early so eligibility is confirmed before the sale.

The deposit gate is real. California online sales close registration and deposit funding days before the auction opens, and an unfunded deposit cannot bid. The deadline that decides whether you are in the sale is the deposit deadline, not the auction date.
Payment clocks are short and enforced. Winning bids come due on the county's deadline, often within days of the close, and a missed payment forfeits the deposit. Fund the maximum bid before the auction opens, not after it closes.

Terms: what a bid actually costs

Deposit, Alameda County	The deposit is $5,000 plus Bid4Assets costs, stated in the 2026 sale terms as a $5,000 paddle deposit plus a $35 non refundable Bid4Assets fee, funded through Bid4Assets before bidding. The registration deadline for the next sale, and the deadline by which that deposit must be funded, were not published as of November 9, 2026. A bidder who does not complete a purchase will forfeit the $5,000 deposit and be banned from future Alameda County auctions.
Payment, Alameda County	Successful bidders must pay by wire transfer through the eDeposit process as directed on Bid4Assets within 72 hours of being advised of a successful bid, plus city and county transfer taxes. A documentary transfer tax of $0.55 for each $500, or fractional part, applies when the purchase price exceeds $100. The tax deed is mailed 60 days from the close of the auction, after payment is wired to Bid4Assets.
What is sold	The property itself, by tax deed. California sells no tax liens or certificates to the public at any stage: the Chapter 7 auction is the whole event, and the deed is what the winning bid buys.
Minimum bid	The minimum price under Section 3698.5(a), built from the delinquent taxes, penalties and costs the code specifies. At a first offering the floor is the full statutory amount, not a market estimate. Reoffers under Section 3698.5 can carry a lower minimum, which is why the same parcel can be two very different buys in two rounds.
Redemption	The owner may redeem until the close of business on the last business day before the sale begins. After the sale there is no redemption, by anyone, at any price. Everything about a California bid is priced on that hard stop.
The deed	A tax deed issued by the tax collector under Section 3712. It conveys the title described in the statute, free of most liens and encumbrances, with statutory exceptions (liens of public agencies with priority and recorded easements among them). It is not a title insurance policy; title work after the sale is the buyer's job.
Costs on top of the bid	The deposit mechanics and payment deadline in the county terms, plus documentary transfer tax and recording charges as the county publishes them, and current year taxes the sale terms assign to the buyer.

Unsold parcels go to the next sale

If a parcel does not sell, the owner right of redemption revives and the parcel is offered at subsequent tax sales until it is redeemed or sold. The county states that property cannot be purchased directly from the county outside the public auction, and that a bidder who defaults cannot be replaced by the second highest bidder: the county must take appropriate legal action against the defaulting bidder. The county FAQ does not publish a reduced minimum reoffer schedule, so any reduced minimum must be read from the next sale terms when they are posted.

Before you bid

Work the list twice. Redemption pulls parcels until the close of business on the last business day before the sale. The list a county publishes at notice is the research list; the list that actually sells is shorter. Re-check the morning the auction opens.
As is, and the deed is not a policy. No interior access, occupants may be in place, and the tax deed's statutory exceptions leave title homework behind the sale. Drive the property, read the county disclosures, and budget the title and cleanup work.
Price the reoffer before the first sale. Parcels that draw no bid at the minimum return under Section 3698.5, sometimes at a reduced minimum. Decide in advance whether you are a first round buyer at the statutory floor or a reoffer buyer waiting for the second price.
Set the maximum before the sale opens. The free Max-Bid Calculator below works backwards from your resale or hold value to the highest bid you can pay, with the costs shown.

Every California county in this set

One page per county, each verified against its own tax collector source. California has 58 counties; this set is the top 20 by population and sale volume.

VERIFY BEFORE YOU GO

Keep going

Run your maximum bid

The free Max-Bid Calculator works backwards from your resale price to the highest hammer bid you can pay, with the fees shown line by line.

Open the Max-Bid Calculator

Get the California alerts

The Pine membership is built on alerts: members pick their counties, get an email when a sale is scheduled or a list posts, and receive the full property list with the analysis done. California counties are being added from the interest list first, in the order readers ask for them.

Join the California interest list below

Once a deadline puts you in a sale, the Land Investor Due Diligence Toolkit is the checklist and bid worksheet to run on each parcel before you bid. The same desk runs Florida tax deed sales, Texas tax sales, Pennsylvania tax sales, Georgia tax sales, North Carolina tax foreclosure sales, Ohio tax foreclosure sales, Illinois tax lien sales, Michigan tax foreclosure sales, Arizona tax lien sales and California tax defaulted property sales, and the proven New York season, with the live membership, sits in the NY tax sale hub.

Pine Parcel Alerts · The paid tier

Alameda County · CALIFORNIA

The sale dates are free. The parcels are the product.

Members set their counties and their parameters, parcel size and back taxes among them, and every matching parcel arrives by email with a one-page deal analysis: what the parcel is, when it sells, and what to bid. The dates and the basic alerts on this page stay free; Pine Parcel Alerts is $4.99 a month or $49 a year for the parcels themselves, screened and analyzed.

See Pine Parcel Alerts

California sale lists and county data, first.

One email when a California county opens for alerts, plus new county pages as they post. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

More state guides

New York tax sales · Florida tax deed sales · Texas tax sales · Pennsylvania tax sales · Georgia tax sales · North Carolina tax foreclosure sales · Ohio tax foreclosure sales · Illinois tax lien sales · Michigan tax foreclosure sales · Arizona tax lien sales