On September 17, the tax man cometh. If your Northampton County property is two or more years delinquent in real estate taxes, it will be sold at an "upset" tax sale to the highest bidder. The leeches from Philly and Jersey, as we like to call them, are already researching different properties they'd like to buy this month.Overworked Cindy Hoffman, who runs our tax claim bureau, tells me that 761 different properties are still listed for sale. I'm pretty sure that's a record, but Cindy has no time right now to compare this year's tax sale to what has happened before. She and her staff are on the phone, trying to track down property owners before their house is literally sold out from under them.
6 comments:
What a tremendous opportunity for potential first time buyers. Too bad Washington has gamed the system to bail out bad borrowers instead of letting the market provide one of its rare chances at home ownership for those who might actually pay their mortgages and taxes. Bush and Obama and Congress bailed out the rich and irresponsible, while stomping on the fingers of those reaching for the first rung of the property ladder. This change is a hope killer.
Beware, beware, beware!!!
This is an upset sale, not a tax sale. These properties come with all liens and encumbrances.
The tax sale, which is held later, does not come with liens and encumbrances. Unless you want to go to court to quiet title (and be prepared for a battle) neophytes should stay clear of the upset sale. O'Hare, I'm surprised you didn't give this caveat!
I did not give the caveat emptore warning and thank you for pointing it out. But the point of post is not to encourage anyone to buy these properties, but to point out how many are being sold. It's a reflection of the sad state of our economy.
I believe that a lot of properties on the sheriff's/upset sale have been on the lists for months and months. They keep getting "continued" and pushed to the next month. Probably the banks trying to give people a second chance to cough up the money.
That's certainly true of sheriff's sales that come about from foreclosures. But this is a different kind of sale, the tax sale, conducted annually. if you have not paid taxes for two years, and have failed to make arrangements, your property will be sold.
I thought Angle cleaned up at these things.
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