Cumberland County tax sales

Verified

Cumberland runs the whole dated side of its system online: the upset sale and its continuations are Bid4Assets auctions with a $500 deposit, a $35 registration fee and a 5 percent buyer's premium on top of the bid. The bureau is explicit that all sales are final and there is no redemption period, quoting the Tax Sale Law itself.

Selling office: Cumberland County Tax Claim Bureau, Cumberland County Tax Administration, Historic Courthouse, One Courthouse Square, Room 104, Carlisle, PA 17013, phone 717-240-6367

Next event: No dated sale is published; the judicial sale is to be announced in 2027. The Bureau's Judicial Sale Conditions state the judicial sale will be scheduled on a date to be announced in 2027. The most recent dated sale was the Continued Upset Sale on Friday, October 23, 2026, following the annual upset sale on September 18, 2026, both held online.

The bureau posts the upset list as a searchable database on the county website about 45 days before a sale rather than as a single document.

Dates and stages

Next event	No dated sale is published; the judicial sale is to be announced in 2027
Upset sale	Held every year, normally on the third Thursday of September, online via Bid4Assets. The 2026 upset sale ran September 18, 2026 with a continued sale October 23, 2026. The opening bid is the upset price; bidding moves in increments of at least $100.
Judicial sale	Properties not sold at upset are listed for judicial sale under the Bureau's published Judicial Sale Conditions. No date is set: the conditions state the sale will be scheduled on a date to be announced in 2027.
Repository	Not published as a Bureau program. County commissioners' minutes reference repository sale consents, but the Bureau publishes no repository list, minimum bid or mechanics, so none is stated here.
Format	Online only, via Bid4Assets at bid4assets.com/cumberlandpa, including proxy bidding by phone. Registration, the deposit and settlement all run through the platform.
Selling office	Cumberland County Tax Claim Bureau, Cumberland County Tax Administration, Historic Courthouse, One Courthouse Square, Room 104, Carlisle, PA 17013, phone 717-240-6367
The list	The upset list posts on the county website (the upset sale database) about 45 days before the sale and is available in the office at $0.50 a page. The sale is advertised in the Cumberland Law Journal, the Shippensburg News Chronicle and the Patriot News.

Sources: Cumberland County Tax Administration, About Us. Upset Sale Questions and Answers. Upset Sale Conditions. Judicial Sale Conditions. Confirm with the selling office before relying on any date on this page: sales move, terms change, and owners can pay and stop a sale at any point before it starts.

Research Cumberland 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 Cumberland 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.

The three stages, and what title you get at each

Delinquent taxes go to the Tax Claim Bureau. When real estate taxes stay unpaid, the claims are returned to the county Tax Claim Bureau, which collects for the county, the municipality and the school district and runs the sales (Real Estate Tax Sale Law, 72 P.S. Section 5860.101 and following). Two counties in this set are outside the system by law: Philadelphia (a county of the first class) and Allegheny (second class). Their delinquent tax sales run through their sheriffs instead, and their pages say how.
Stage one: the upset sale. The bureau must schedule the upset sale no earlier than the second Monday of September and before October 1, and may continue it within the calendar year (Section 5860.601). The opening price is the upset price (Section 5860.605): the tax claims and interest, any other tax claims and judgments, all accrued taxes including the current year, municipal claims, and the record costs and costs of sale. No bid below the upset price can be accepted. An upset buyer takes the property subject to mortgages, liens and ground rents that were not part of the upset price (Section 5860.609): the taxes are paid, the liens may not be.
Stage two: the judicial sale. What does not sell at upset can be exposed again at a judicial sale, which the bureau petitions the Court of Common Pleas to order (Sections 5860.610 and 5860.612). This is the prize of the system: a judicial sale conveys the property freed and cleared of all tax and municipal claims, mortgages, liens, charges and estates, except separately taxed ground rents. Judicial lists draw the serious buyers precisely because the court order clears the title.
Stage three: the repository. What does not sell at judicial sale is placed in the repository for unsold properties, and the bureau must keep the list available to the public (Section 5860.626). At any time of year, the bureau may accept an offer of any price for a repository parcel, with the written consent of every taxing district where the property sits and without court approval (Section 5860.627). Repository deeds convey the same cleared title as judicial deeds, except separately taxed ground rents. Counties set their own minimum bids, forms and fees; each county page carries its own.
The owner's rights end at the sale. An owner can pay the claim and stop the process at any point before the sale, including by an installment agreement with the bureau. After an upset or judicial sale there is no redemption: the owner's remaining route is objections to the bureau's return in court, on the confirmation timetable in the terms table below. Philadelphia is the exception in this set: an owner-occupier there can redeem within nine months after the sheriff's deed is acknowledged (see the Philadelphia page).

How registration works in Cumberland County

Registration runs through Bid4Assets in the window the Bureau publishes for each sale (September 25 through October 13, 2026 for the continued upset). It requires a signed affidavit and ID, a $35 non-refundable registration fee, and the $500 deposit below. Bidders must be 18 or older, may not be county employees, and must not be delinquent on Pennsylvania taxes or owe municipal utility bills more than a year old.

Registration closes early everywhere that matters. In the bureau counties, Pennsylvania law requires registration at least 10 days before the sale, and several counties in this set close weeks ahead or cap the room. Philadelphia's deposit deadline runs about a week ahead of its sale dates.
You certify you are clean. A bureau bidder certifies they owe no delinquent real estate taxes or municipal utility bills and are not bidding for someone who does. Philadelphia requires tax compliance proof at settlement instead.

Terms: what a bid actually costs

Deposit, Cumberland County	$500, paid through Bid4Assets by the published deadline (due October 16, 2026 for the continued upset; a deposit paid by check had to clear by October 19), on top of the $35 registration fee. A bidder who fails to settle forfeits the deposit and is barred.
Payment, Cumberland County	Settlement runs through Bid4Assets by close of business on the published settlement date (October 26, 2026 for the continued upset). The buyer also pays the 5 percent Bid4Assets buyer's premium, transfer tax, and a $105.75 recording fee ($17 for a mobile home).
What the upset price is	The upset price is the sum of the Commonwealth tax liens, the tax claim and interest on it, any other tax claim or tax judgment due with interest, all accrued taxes including taxes levied for the current year, municipal claims against the property, and the record costs and costs of sale (72 P.S. Section 5860.605). The bureau cannot accept a bid below it.
Title at an upset sale	An upset sale conveys title subject to every recorded obligation, claim, lien, estate, mortgage, ground rent and Commonwealth tax lien that was not included in the upset price (Section 5860.609). Paying the taxes does not clear the mortgage.
Title at judicial and repository sales	A judicial sale, ordered by the Court of Common Pleas, sells the property freed and cleared of all tax and municipal claims, mortgages, liens, charges and estates, except separately taxed ground rents (Section 5860.612). A repository sale conveys the same cleared title (Section 5860.627).
Bidder registration (state law)	Act 33 of 2021 (Section 5860.501a) requires a bidder at an upset or judicial sale to appear in person and register with the bureau at least 10 days before the sale, and to certify they are not delinquent on real estate taxes or municipal utility bills and are not bidding for someone who is. Counties add their own fees, forms and earlier deadlines; the county version is in the registration section above. Philadelphia and Allegheny run sheriff sales instead and set their own bidder rules.
After the sale	In the bureau counties there is no redemption after the sale. The bureau files its consolidated return with the court within 60 days of the sale; the court confirms the sale nisi, and owners and lien creditors then have 30 days to file objections, limited to the regularity of the bureau's proceedings (Section 5860.607). Absolute confirmation follows if no objections are filed.

Repository: the year round list

Cumberland's Bureau does not publish a repository list or repository sale mechanics. County commissioners' minutes record repository sale consents, which shows parcels move through the repository with district consent, but the minimum bid, the form and the approval route a bidder would use are not published by the Bureau, and this page does not fill them in.

Before you bid

Know which stage you are buying at. An upset price pays the taxes and leaves mortgages and liens standing; a judicial or repository deed clears them, except separately taxed ground rents. The cheapest parcel at the wrong stage is the expensive one.
Check the list again in sale week. Owners can pay and stop the process at any point before the sale, and lists shrink hard between posting and sale day.
Read the post sale rules before you bid, not after. In the bureau counties your protection is the court confirmation process; in Philadelphia it is the nine month owner-occupier redemption the buyer has to price in.
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 Pennsylvania county in this set

One page per county, each verified against its own bureau, sheriff or platform source. Pennsylvania has 67 counties; this set is the top 30 by documented sale volume and population.

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 Pennsylvania 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. Pennsylvania counties are being added from the interest list first, in the order readers ask for them.

Join the Pennsylvania 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 and Texas tax sales, and the proven New York season, with the live membership, sits in the NY tax sale hub.

Pine Parcel Alerts · The paid tier

Cumberland County · PENNSYLVANIA

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

Pennsylvania sale lists and county data, first.

One email when a Pennsylvania 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