California Tax Auctions — Every County's Tax-Defaulted Property Sales

1,399 properties across 2 counties are scheduled for upcoming tax sales as of August 27, 2026, with the next sale closing September 11, 2026. Counts update daily as counties publish, add and redeem parcels.

The county-by-county table on this page lists every California county’s tax-sale program: how often it sells and the next published date. Counties with a sale on the calendar link to that sale’s page. Most counties sell once a year; a few sell as needed and can go years between sales.

No. California is a tax-deed state — counties do not sell tax lien certificates. After five years of default (three for some non-residential parcels) the county tax collector can sell the property itself at a tax-defaulted land sale, and the winning bidder receives a tax deed.

The tax deed is senior to private encumbrances, so a completed tax sale wipes out deeds of trust, HOA liens, and junior judgment liens. That is exactly why lenders usually advance delinquent taxes before a sale — to keep the auction from extinguishing their lien. The exception that matters is a recorded federal tax lien: it survives the sale and gives the IRS 120 days to redeem the parcel from the buyer. Certain government assessments and bonds can also carry over.

Tax-delinquent means an installment was missed — penalties start immediately. Tax-defaulted is the state’s term for a property whose taxes were still unpaid when the fiscal year closed on June 30; from July 1 it sits in a redemption period, and after five years of default the county can sell it. Every property in a tax auction was tax-delinquent first.

Pull the county records first: current ownership, open liens and their seniority, the tax-delinquency history, and whether the parcel has structures or is raw land. Properant links every scheduled auction lot to its full property profile — owner, liens, equity estimate, and the recorded timeline — so bidders can screen an entire county auction list before sale day.