Land · Illinois tax sale guide

Illinois tax lien sales by county

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Illinois does not sell the property. Once a year, after the circuit court enters judgment, the county treasurer as ex officio collector auctions the unpaid taxes themselves: buyers bid the penalty down from a statutory cap (9 percent since Public Act 104-553 took effect on July 10, 2026), pay the full amount due on the day of sale, and walk away with a certificate of purchase, a lien. The owner then has 3 years in the standard case (1 year for vacant non-farm, seven or more unit, commercial and industrial parcels) to redeem through the county clerk at the bid penalty, and only an unredeemed certificate can become a deed, through a second court case.

This page set covers the top 20 counties by population and sale volume. Each county page carries who sells, the sale date, the venue or platform, the registration deadline, the deposit, the list cost where the county publishes one, and what happens to taxes nobody buys, verified against the treasurer, clerk or statute source. Two wrinkles decide most bids. First, the 2026 law change: county pages still quoting an 18 percent penalty or a 2.5 year redemption are quoting the old law, and the Code, not the FAQ, governs a new purchase. Second, Cook County is its own scale, with bids placed in person in Chicago and a separate scavenger sale that exists only when the County Board calls one.

Verify before you go: counties can move a date, change terms, cancel a sale, or pull parcels at any time. The official sale list is the final word.

The 20 counties

Each row links to that county's own page: selling office, venue or platform, deposit, payment terms, leftover channel, and sources. Where a county has not posted a dated sale, the row says so instead of projecting a pattern onto it.

How Illinois tax lien sales work

• Judgment comes first. When taxes stay unpaid, the county treasurer, acting as ex officio county collector, applies to the circuit court for judgment and order of sale against the delinquent parcels (Section 21-190). The delinquent list is advertised, and only parcels under judgment go to the sale. There is no deed on offer at any point in this process: Illinois sells the taxes, and the property changes hands only years later, through a separate court case, if it changes hands at all.
• Buyers register early, and bid as one entity. Registration with the collector is required at least 10 business days before the first day of sale (Section 21-220), and counties close their own windows earlier. In counties of 275,000 or more people, the single bidder rule (Section 21-205(b-5)) requires related buyers to bid as one. Since 2013 the sale itself must be run on an automated bidding system or recorded, which is why so many Illinois sales work through RAMS and a USB drive of bids.
• The annual sale sells a lien certificate, priced by a penalty bid-down. Bidding is by penalty percentage and goes down: the lowest penalty wins. Public Act 104-553, effective July 10, 2026, cut the cap in Section 21-215 from 18 percent to 9 percent, so any county page or packet still quoting 18 percent is pre-amendment text. The winner pays the full amount due, plus per parcel sale fees (commonly $104: indemnity, advertising, clerk, treasurer automation and sale in error fund charges), on the day of sale, and receives a certificate of purchase.
• Redemption runs through the county clerk, and the penalty is the return. Under Section 21-350 as amended, the standard redemption period is now 3 years from the sale; it is 1 year if on the sale date the property is vacant non-farm, has a structure with seven or more residential units, or is commercial or industrial. Certificates issued from January 1, 2024 to July 9, 2026 run the prior 2.5 year track, which the holder can extend under Section 21-385 to no later than 3 years. The owner redeems at the clerk's office by paying the certificate amount plus the penalty at the bid rate for each six month period elapsed (the Section 21-355 schedule: the penalty once in the first six months, then two, three, four, five and six times it as the periods run). A redeemed certificate pays the buyer back with that penalty; that is the normal exit.
• The deed is a second, separate case. Only after redemption expires unredeemed can the certificate holder petition the circuit court for a tax deed, serving the statutory notices the Code requires. Until that deed issues, the buyer holds a lien position: no possession, no rents, and a defined set of sale in error risks that can unwind a purchase. Price an Illinois certificate as a timed claim with a court case at the end of it, not as a property purchase.

One Illinois fact decides most bids: the penalty is earned per six month period, so the redemption track sets the holding math before the bid does. A certificate is a timed claim priced by that clock, not a property purchase with a waiting period.

Research the parcels before you bid

A sale list gives you the parcel, 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 the country, searchable by address, owner, or county, including parcels that never reach a sale list.

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Get the alert, not just the calendar.

The dates on these pages are the free layer. The Pine membership is the paid layer, proven in New York: members pick their counties, get alerts when a sale is scheduled or a list posts, and receive the full property list with the analysis already done. Illinois counties open from the interest list first, in the order readers join it.

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.