Key takeaways about recent Sacramento tax auctions<\/p>\n
Of 32 properties auctioned by the county from 2022 to 2025, 13 parcels remain vacant and only a handful of new homes have been built on auctioned land.<\/p>\n
Properties typically reach auction after about seven years of tax default. The average minimum bid was $37,646, with properties selling for around $200,000 on average \u2014 well below Sacramento\u2019s average home value of $480,548 as of April 30, according to Zillow.<\/p>\n
Buyers face real risks: liens, code violations, hazardous contamination and unexpected occupants. Bay Area investor Afshin Sazegari paid $255,381.05 for a south Sacramento house in May 2022 that remains fenced off and uninhabitable after a fire.<\/p>\n
A 2025 auction resulted in tragedy months later when Karl Lysinger detonated his Oak Park house and died on the day he was to be evicted.<\/p>\n
Auctions cluster in lower-value neighborhoods on the city\u2019s outer edges, where infill development economics are \u201cproblematic\u201d according to architect David Mogavero.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/d4726561e983f29defc260497bc67b0c.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
A recently constructed home, photographed in March 2026, stands at 4929 Baker Ave. in Sacramento County. The property was a vacant parcel when it was sold in a 2022 tax auction for $87,997. GRAHAM WOMACK\/gwomack@sacbee.com<\/p>\n
(GRAHAM WOMACK\/gwomack@sacbee.com)<\/p>\n
This report was produced with the assistance of a proprietary tool powered by artificial intelligence based on our own originally reported, written and published content. Before publishing, journalists reviewed this content in compliance with McClatchy Media\u2019s AI policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sacramento County\u2019s bi-annual tax auctions can look like bargain opportunities, but a Sacramento Bee review of 32 properties…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[137599,121,2006,357,123,122,134068,137598,134069],"class_list":["post-331991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-properties-sold","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-bee","tag-sacramento-county","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news","tag-tax-auction","tag-tax-auction-deals","tag-tax-auctions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}