Onondaga County, NY
Online tax foreclosure auction, Oct 6–8 — $100 opening bids, balance due Oct 16
Onondaga County's real property tax foreclosure auction runs online only, managed by Absolute Auction & Realty: bidding begins Tuesday, October 6, 2026 at 10 a.m. and ends Thursday, October 8, when the auctioneer's listing closes at 10:00 a.m. Parcels are auctioned alphabetically by town and then by tax map number, every parcel opens at $100, and the highest bid at the close wins. As soon as a bid closes, a down payment is charged — $10,000 or 20% of the final bid, whichever is higher, by Visa or Mastercard or by wire — and winning bids under $10,000 are paid in full at the close. The balance is due in certified funds or a personal or business check by 3 p.m. on October 16 at the county office on the 15th floor of 421 Montgomery Street in Syracuse; missing that deadline forfeits the down payment and the property.
Registration is through Absolute Auction & Realty, and the county screens bidders: no one can register who has delinquent taxes on property they, a member of their household or their business owns, and each person to be named on the deed needs a valid government-issued photo ID and a Social Security number (a business also needs its paperwork and EIN). What you're buying is the property itself. Like most New York counties, Onondaga doesn't sell tax liens; under Article 11 of the Real Property Tax Law it forecloses in rem once the redemption period has run out, takes title and then auctions the parcel with a quitclaim deed, so there is no redemption by the former owner after the sale. Since 2024, any surplus above what was owed goes to the former owner and lienholders rather than the county (RPTL §§ 1196–1197) — a $100 opening bid is a starting point for the auction, not a measure of what the county is owed.
New York rules at a glance
New York has no single tax sale. Under Article 11 of the Real Property Tax Law, most counties foreclose unpaid tax liens themselves in an in rem court proceeding once the redemption period ends (two years after the lien date, three or four for homes and farms where a local law extends it), take title and auction the property with a quitclaim deed; since 2024 any surplus goes to the former owner and lienholders (RPTL §§ 1110, 1111, 1136, 1196–1197). A few places kept their own laws: Nassau County auctions liens with the rate bid down from 10% per six months, and New York City sells its liens only to a single trust, and it paused the 2026 sale.
The statute, the bidding and what goes wrong for new buyers are on the New York page; every sale date we have sourced for Onondaga County is on the Onondaga County page.
Property & tax profile
The median homeowner in Onondaga County pays $4,880 a year in property tax — below the New York median of $6,582 (U.S.: $3,119). That is roughly what a typical home here owes for each year it goes unpaid — the debt that the opening bid at a deed sale is usually built from, plus interest and costs. Homes with a mortgage pay a median of $5,185; homes owned outright, $4,426.
On a home with a mortgage, the lender has its own reason to pay a delinquent tax bill: the tax lien outranks the mortgage, and a tax deed can wipe out the loan. On a home owned outright, nobody but the owner — or the heirs — has that reason. In Onondaga County, 39.9% of owner-occupied homes are owned outright (New York: 42.2%, U.S.: 39.4%). About the same as the state as a whole.
6.7% of all housing units in Onondaga County are vacant. The figure that matters for a buyer at the tax sale is the Census “other vacant” category — not for rent, not for sale, not a holiday home, but a catch-all that includes foreclosures, homes held up by legal proceedings or family reasons, homes needing repairs, and abandoned ones. Here it is 3.3% of all units (New York: 3.4%, U.S.: 3.6%). Close to the state rate.
Half of the homes in Onondaga County were built in or before 1964 (New York: in or before 1959). The typical tax bill is 6.3% of the median household income of $76,945 (New York: 7.7%).
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates (tables B25077, B25103, B25081, B25002, B25004, B25035, B19013) — see the figures on data.census.gov. Survey estimates with margins of error; anything too uncertain to state is left out.
Before you bid: With bidding open October 6–8 and the balance due October 16, line up the down payment and certified funds before you bid. The parcel list and registration are on the auctioneer's site, linked from the county's Real Property Tax Services auction page.
Official source: onondaga.gov — checked October 4, 2026
More sales: 41 other county sales are on the calendar in October 2026 — see them by date; or the upcoming sales in New York.
This page reflects publicly posted county auction notices as of publication and is general information, not financial or legal advice. Sale details can change — always confirm current terms with the county directly.