Philadelphia tax sales

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Philadelphia is a county of the first class, which puts it outside the Real Estate Tax Sale Law entirely: no Tax Claim Bureau, no upset sale, no judicial sale, no repository. Its delinquent tax sales are sheriff sales, run in monthly series for city property taxes, School District of Philadelphia taxes, and water and sewer debt.

Selling office: Office of the Sheriff, City and County of Philadelphia (the Philadelphia Sheriff's Office), Real Estate Division. Philadelphia has no Tax Claim Bureau.

Next event: Wednesday, November 18, 2026 (a Bid4Assets tax sale date; see the note). The Sheriff publishes frequency, not a calendar: four tax sales each month plus one quarterly, all at 10:00 AM on Bid4Assets. The dated auctions confirmed on Bid4Assets are November 18 and December 16, 2026; one tracker also lists a November 10, 2026 sale with 619 parcels. Read the Bid4Assets Philadelphia page for the live series and dates.

TaxSalesFeed recorded a Philadelphia sale on November 10, 2026 with 619 parcels at a median opening bid of $1,600, read November 9, 2026: the largest single sale in this Pennsylvania set. The Sheriff's Office describes its own volume as 4,000 to 4,200 tax sales a year.

Dates and stages

Next event	Wednesday, November 18, 2026 (a Bid4Assets tax sale date; see the note)
Upset sale	Not applicable. Philadelphia runs no upset sale.
Judicial sale	Not applicable as a bureau stage. The Sheriff's tax lien, tax collection and tax delinquent sales are the whole system.
Repository	Not applicable. There is no repository; the inventory rolls into the next monthly sheriff series.
Format	Online only: Online, on the Bid4Assets Philadelphia Sheriff Sales page. All sheriff sales run there at 10:00 AM. The Sheriff's own site is for searching the auctions; the bidding happens on Bid4Assets.
Selling office	Office of the Sheriff, City and County of Philadelphia (the Philadelphia Sheriff's Office), Real Estate Division. Philadelphia has no Tax Claim Bureau.
The list	Sales are advertised in The Legal Intelligencer and a rotating paper of general circulation. The Sheriff's site links an auction search; the property lists and the bidding are on Bid4Assets.

Sources: Philadelphia Sheriff's Office, How Sheriff Sales Work. Philadelphia Sheriff's Office, About Us (4,000 to 4,200 tax sales a year). Bid4Assets, Philadelphia Sheriff tax sale auction page (deposit terms). 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 Philadelphia 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 Philadelphia, searchable by address, owner, or county, including parcels that never reach a sale list.

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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 Philadelphia

Register on Bid4Assets to bid; bidders must be 18 or older. To buy at any Philadelphia tax sale you must be tax compliant, and proof of compliance is required at final settlement under the Sheriff Sale Compliance procedure.

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, Philadelphia	A single deposit of $535 ($500 plus a $35 non-refundable processing fee) covers a sale date, paid by certified check, money order or wire. For the December 16, 2026 sale, deposits are due by December 9, 2026 at 4:00 PM Eastern, per the Bid4Assets auction page. Do not confuse this with the $5,000 deposit on the same platform: that one is for mortgage foreclosure sales, not tax sales.
Payment, Philadelphia	The winner pays 10 percent of the total purchase price (or $600 per property, per the platform summaries read) by 5:00 PM Eastern on the first business day after the auction, and the remaining 90 percent within 15 calendar days of the auction date.
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.
Redemption, Philadelphia only	Philadelphia is the exception to Pennsylvania's no redemption rule: within nine months of the acknowledgment of the sheriff's deed, the owner of record can go to court for permission to recover the property by paying all back taxes and the money the winning bidder paid. It applies only if the property was owner-occupied 90 days before the sale. If the property was unoccupied or abandoned, there is no right of redemption. (Philadelphia Sheriff's Office.)

No repository: the monthly sheriff cycle is the inventory

There is no leftover list in Philadelphia, because the system never stops: four tax sale series run every month, between 4,000 and 4,200 tax sales a year by the Sheriff's own count. A parcel that does not draw a bid in one series is a research problem, not a repository bargain; the value layer here is the monthly cadence itself and the tax compliance gate that thins the bidder pool.

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.

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