Land · Maryland tax sale guide

Maryland tax sales by county

Verified

Maryland runs the most rule bound lien system in the Pine set. The collector must sell, the notice runs for weeks in the newspaper before the sale, the purchaser pays by the day after the sale at the latest, and the certificate that results is a working asset with a fuse: foreclosure may be filed after six months, nine months on an owner-occupied home, and a certificate not in foreclosure within two years is void and the purchase money is forfeited. Rates are local, set county by county from Frederick's 8 percent to the 18 percent counties, but one state rule overrides them all: since 2025 the redemption rate on an owner-occupied home may not exceed 10 percent anywhere in Maryland. The high-bid premium is likewise local in effect, existing only where the collector established it and said so in the public notice, at 20 percent of the bid above 40 percent of full cash value, or above the greater of the lien or 40 percent in Baltimore City and Prince George's County.

This page set covers the top 10 Maryland jurisdictions by population. Every 2026 sale in the set has already run (May and June, except Baltimore County's August 27), so these pages are the verified 2026 record and the 2027 working map: each carries the selling office, the platform (the shared portal at countyname.marylandtaxsale.com for the RealAuction counties; the county's own site in Prince George's, Howard and Baltimore County; Baltimore City's platform name is not published on its official pages), registration and deposit where published, the county's rate with its source, its premium position, and its leftover channel, from Prince George's email only assignment sale to Montgomery's flat refusal to sell liens over the counter. Two jurisdictions, Howard and Carroll, carry unresolved date conflicts between SDAT's schedule and the county's own documents, flagged on their pages rather than decided.

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 10 jurisdictions

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 Maryland tax sales work

• The collector must sell, on local law's calendar. Under section 14-808 the collector of each county, the Director of Finance in Baltimore City, proceeds to sell all property on which taxes are in arrears, at the time required by local law and, outside Baltimore City, no later than two years from the date the tax fell in arrears. Most Maryland counties sell in May or June; Baltimore County sells in late summer.
• What is sold is a certificate of sale, not the property. The certificate (section 14-820) sets out the property, the sale date, the amount, the taxes it was sold for, the rate of redemption, the foreclosure timing, and the warning that the certificate is void if foreclosure is not filed within two years. The owner keeps the property unless the right of redemption is foreclosed.
• The sale is a public auction with real notice behind it. All sales are at public auction to the highest good faith accepted bid (section 14-817(a)(2)), after the collector mails the owner a statement at least 30 days before first advertising (section 14-812) and publishes once a week for four successive weeks (section 14-813; three weeks in Frederick County, two insertions plus website posting in Baltimore City, two newspapers in Anne Arundel County).
• Payment is due by the day after the sale. The purchaser pays the full amount of taxes due, interest and penalties, sale expenses and any high-bid premium not later than the day after the sale (section 14-818); any residue of the purchase price remains on credit, and no deed issues until the balance and all post-sale taxes are paid. Several counties in this set take payment the same day by ACH, which is tighter than the statute.
• The high-bid premium is the collector's election, at a statutory formula. Any collector may establish a premium for all properties and must state it in the public notice (section 14-817(b)(2)): 20 percent of the amount by which the bid exceeds 40 percent of full cash value, except in Baltimore City and Prince George's County, where the threshold is the greater of the lien amount or 40 percent of full cash value. It is mandatory for group and sealed bid sales everywhere except Montgomery County. It is refunded without interest on redemption or deed delivery, and it is forfeited after the foreclosure deadline if the property was not redeemed and no foreclosure was filed.
• Redemption runs until the circuit court finally forecloses it. The owner or any interest holder may redeem at any time until the right is finally barred by decree (sections 14-827, 14-833(b)), paying the lien amount, interest at the rate of redemption, holder paid taxes and expenses (section 14-828). Rates are fixed locally under section 14-820, and for owner-occupied residential property the rate may not exceed 10 percent a year anywhere in the state (section 14-820(c)).
• The certificate carries a two year fuse. Foreclosure may be filed after six months, nine months for owner-occupied residential property, after two pre-suit notices (section 14-833(a) and (a-1)); a certificate on which no foreclosure is filed within two years is void and the purchase money is forfeited (section 14-833(c)(1) and (d)). A final judgment vests absolute and indefeasible fee simple title (section 14-844) and the collector then executes the deed (section 14-847). Property nobody buys is bought in and held by the governing body (section 14-824), which may later sell and assign the certificates (section 14-825).

One Maryland fact decides most returns: the two year fuse. No other Pine state destroys an idle certificate outright, money forfeited, and the fuse interacts with everything else: the premium is only refundable inside it, the foreclosure notices must be sequenced inside it, and the owner's redemption right lives exactly as long as it. The second fact is the owner-occupied override: a 10 percent rate cap and a nine month foreclosure wait on homes, statewide, whatever the county's headline numbers say. Maryland rewards the holder who runs a court calendar, and its pages are written for that reader.

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.

Open a PropertyRadar accountSee 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.

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. Maryland 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.