Land · California tax sale guide

Contra Costa County tax sales, California

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Contra Costa sells tax-defaulted property online on GovEase, usually twice a year, in late February and May. Bidders pre-register on GovEase and submit a refundable $5,000 deposit electronically, plus a $35 non-refundable registration fee. The county takes payment by wire transfer only, and owners can redeem until 5:00 p.m. on the day before the auction begins.

Selling office: Contra Costa County Treasurer-Tax Collector

Next sale: No dated sale published. The pattern is two online auctions a year on GovEase, typically in late February and May. Lists post on the Tax Collector's website at least 21 days before each sale, usually in mid to late January and mid to late April, with registration information at cctax.us.

Contra Costa runs two sales a year rather than one, and the February and May lists are posted only weeks ahead. Watch the Tax Collector's auction page from mid January and mid April for the current list and the registration window.

Dates and deadlines

Sources: Contra Costa County Treasurer-Tax Collector, annual public auction. Contra Costa County Treasurer-Tax Collector, annual public auction information. 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 Contra Costa 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 Contra Costa County, searchable by address, owner, or county, including parcels that never reach a sale list.

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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 Contra Costa County

Register on GovEase for the Contra Costa sale; the county accepts no bids anywhere else. The Treasurer-Tax Collector's office at 625 Court Street in Martinez is the contact for county questions, and GovEase handles registration, the deposit, and payment. Sales run twice a year, so a missed registration window costs months rather than a year.

• 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

Reoffers and parcels that do not sell

A parcel that receives no acceptable bid stays tax-defaulted and can be offered again at a future Contra Costa sale. Under Section 3698.5(c), a parcel that has been offered before and received no bids can be re-offered at a minimum bid below the full redemption amount. With two sales a year, an unsold parcel's next chance is usually months away, not a year.

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.

• Los Angeles County tax sales
• San Diego County tax sales
• Orange County tax sales
• Riverside County tax sales
• San Bernardino County tax sales
• Sacramento County tax sales
• Alameda County tax sales
• Santa Clara County tax sales
• Ventura County tax sales
• San Joaquin County tax sales
• Contra Costa County (this page)
• Fresno County tax sales
• Kern County tax sales
• San Francisco tax sales
• San Mateo County tax sales
• Stanislaus County tax sales
• Sonoma County tax sales
• Tulare County tax sales
• Solano County tax sales
• Santa Barbara County tax sales

Keep going

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.