Alabama Is Both: 28,911 Delinquent Properties and a 12% Rate You Bid Down

Alabama is a hybrid state, and that is the whole answer. Since Act 2018-577, each county elects either a tax lien certificate auction or the older tax deed sale, and most active counties now run tax lien auctions. So "is Alabama a tax lien or tax deed state" has no statewide answer – it has a county answer. Before you plan a bid, you have to know which track the county you are bidding in has chosen.

So which is it, tax lien or tax deed?

Both, by county election. Alabama runs two parallel systems under the same chapter of the code:

1. The tax lien auction track (Art. 7). The county sells a tax lien certificate. You are buying a lien that earns interest, not the property and not title. Lien auctions are held annually, no earlier than March 1 and no later than June 15, with the exact date set by each county. Many of the online sales run on GovEase.
2. The tax deed track (Art. 1). The older system. The buyer gets a certificate of purchase that ripens into a tax deed after 3 years. Even then, title stays subject to the owner's redemption rights and is often only possessory or clouded until a quiet-title action.

Most active counties have moved to the lien auction. But "most" is not "all", and the county sets its own election, so this is the first thing to confirm and the thing most out-of-state guides skip entirely.

Alabama's 12% is a ceiling you bid down, not a fixed rate

This is the second place national write-ups get Alabama wrong. In a tax lien auction, bidding is bid-down interest: it starts at the 12% statutory maximum and descends in 1% increments toward 0%, and the lowest accepted rate wins the certificate. The rate that accrues is whatever the winning bid set, not 12%.

The older tax deed track bids the other way: an overbid (excess bid) above the taxes due, with that overbid held for the owner. Registration ahead of the sale is required either way.

So the honest version of "Alabama pays 12%" is: 12% is the most anyone can earn, in the counties that run lien auctions, before competition. Hold onto that, because the next section puts a dollar figure on it.

How many Alabama properties are actually tax delinquent?

Almost nobody publishes this, so here is ours, read from the live county database on 21 August 2026:

• 28,911 tax-delinquent properties in Alabama
• 2 Alabama counties with delinquent records in our data – Jefferson (Birmingham) and Mobile – out of the state's 67
• $1,566.38 average back taxes owed per property
• $656.72 median back taxes owed, which is well under half the average
• $45.3 million in unpaid property tax across those records
• 11th – Alabama's rank by delinquent volume among the 36 states we currently carry
• 100% of those records carry a property address

A property counts as delinquent here when the county's own delinquent file shows back taxes owed on it. Full county parcel rolls, which list every property including the ones paid up, are excluded. That is why this number is in the tens of thousands rather than the hundreds of thousands.

Which Alabama counties have the most delinquent property?

County	Tax-delinquent properties	Average back taxes owed	Median back taxes owed	Total unpaid tax
Jefferson (Birmingham)	18,408	$1,880	$820	$34,611,285
Mobile	10,503	$1,016	$464	$10,674,418

Two counties, counted live on 21 August 2026. That is the honest shape of our Alabama coverage today. Every Alabama figure on this page is a Jefferson-plus-Mobile figure. It is not a statewide estimate, and we have not extrapolated one to the other 65 counties.

Inside Jefferson County the delinquency is concentrated where you would expect: 6,704 records in Birmingham itself, 2,221 in Bessemer, 995 in Midfield, 911 in Center Point and 821 in Tarrant.

12% of a $657 tax bill is $79, and that is before anyone bids

Put the statutory ceiling next to the live file and the Alabama pitch changes shape. Sorted by what is owed, the 28,911 delinquent Alabama records we hold break down like this:

Back taxes owed	Records	Share of the file
Under $500	11,628	40.2%
$500 – $1,000	7,194	24.9%
$1,000 – $5,000	8,954	31.0%
$5,000 – $25,000	1,010	3.5%
$25,000 and up	125	0.4%

18,822 records, 65.1% of the whole file, owe less than $1,000. That is the number that decides whether an Alabama certificate strategy works for you, and it is the number no statute page can give you.

Run it through: 12% on the statewide median bill of $656.72 is $78.81 for a full year. In Jefferson County, 12% on the median $819.74 is $98.37 a year, or $295.11 across the full 3-year redemption window at simple interest. In Mobile, 12% on the median $464.48 is $55.74 a year.

And those are the ceiling figures. The rate is bid down in 1% increments, so a competitive lot might clear at 4%, which turns that Jefferson median into $32.79 for the year. Add the county's registration and the time spent researching a parcel and the arithmetic gets uncomfortable fast.

Three honest conclusions follow:

• Yield alone does not carry an Alabama certificate portfolio at the small end. Two-thirds of the file is a three-figure bill. You need volume, or you need bigger bills, or you need a different reason to be there.
• The tail is where the yield lives. 1,135 records owe $5,000 or more and 125 owe $25,000 or more. The largest single delinquent bill in our Alabama file is $525,905.72 in Jefferson County. Those are the lots worth competing for on rate.
• If you are bidding to own, the small bills are the point, not the problem. 11,628 records owe under $500 in back taxes. In Jefferson County, where 17,580 of 18,408 records (95.5%) carry an estimated value, the median is $51,700. Underwrite from the property, never from the tax bill.

Lien track vs. deed track, side by side

The two Alabama systems are not variations on a theme. They give you different instruments, different bidding, and different exits.

	Tax lien auction (Art. 7)	Tax deed sale (Art. 1)
What you buy	A tax lien certificate: the unpaid tax debt, secured by the property	A certificate of purchase that ripens into a tax deed after 3 years
Do you own it?	No. You hold a lien that earns interest, not title	Eventually, and even then title is often only possessory or clouded
How bidding works	Bid the interest rate down from 12% in 1% increments; lowest accepted rate wins	Overbid above the taxes due, with the overbid held for the owner
When it is sold	Annually, no earlier than March 1 and no later than June 15, date set by the county	Scheduled by the county under the older process
Redemption	3 years from the sale date	3 years from the sale date
What a redeemer pays	The certificate amount plus 12% per annum on the minimum bid and any overbid
How it expires	The certificate expires 10 years from issuance if no foreclosure action is brought	The deed issues after 3 years, subject to redemption rights

See is Florida a tax lien or tax deed state for a pure certificate state, is Georgia a tax lien or tax deed state and is Tennessee a tax lien or tax deed state for the redeemable-deed neighbours Alabama is most often lumped in with, and our state-by-state tax lien interest rate table for the wider picture.

The right of possession is the real Alabama risk

The ordinary right of redemption runs 3 years from the sale date on both tracks. But Alabama also has a separate equitable "right of possession" redemption for owners who remained in possession, and it can persist well beyond the 3-year window until the certificate holder ejects them or quiets title.

That is the single biggest title risk in Alabama deals, and it is why Alabama tax-deed title is treated as risky even after the redemption period on paper has run. An owner who never left the property may be able to defeat a quiet-title action years after the 3-year window, so title usually requires ejectment plus quiet title before it is marketable.

Practically, this means an Alabama exit is a legal project, not a waiting game. Budget for it before you bid, not after. Our quiet title cost calculator is the place to put a number on that side of the deal.

1,101 Jefferson County parcels show a complicated owner

One more thing our file shows that a statute cannot. Of the 18,408 delinquent Jefferson County records, 279 carry a deceased-owner signal and 822 carry an heir signal. That is 6.0% of the county's file where the person named on the tax roll may not be the person who can sign a deed.

Those are signals, not adjudications. They flag a record for research; they do not establish that an owner has died or who inherited. But in a state whose defining risk is an owner who stayed in possession, knowing which parcels have a tangled ownership picture before the sale is the difference between a clean file and an ejectment action you bought at auction.

We do not publish deceased or heir figures for Mobile County: those records are in our delinquent file but have not been through owner enrichment yet, so the honest count there is "not measured", not "zero".

What this means for how you buy

Confirm the county's track before anything else. "Alabama" is not a strategy. A lien auction county and a deed sale county hand you different instruments with different exits, and the county chooses.

Do not underwrite to 12%. Twelve percent is the opening ceiling in a bid-down auction, not a fixed coupon. Model the rate you actually expect to win at, on the bill that is actually owed, which for two-thirds of our Alabama file is under $1,000.

Price the ejectment and the quiet title into the bid. The equitable right of possession is what separates Alabama's paper timeline from its real one. If your plan needs marketable title on a schedule, that budget line is not optional.

If you are buying to own, Alabama is genuinely cheap at the entry. 11,628 records owe under $500, and in Jefferson County the median estimated value behind those bills is $51,700. That gap is the opportunity and the reason the title risk is priced in.

Getting the Alabama list

Knowing Alabama is a hybrid state does not put a single address in front of you. The list does.

• Alabama market data – delinquent counts, average owed, and deal grades for the Alabama counties we cover.
• Alabama counties – open a covered county and see what is actually in it before you pay anything.
• Alabama investing guide – the lien auction, redemption and title process for the state.
• Tax delinquent property in Alabama – the step-by-step version.
• Alabama data catalog – what we hold per county and where it came from.
• Property tax delinquency statistics – the national picture Alabama sits inside, from the same database.

Create a free account to open an Alabama county and see the records for yourself.

Alabama tax lien and tax deed questions

Does Alabama sell tax liens or tax deeds?

Both. Since Act 2018-577, each county elects either a tax lien certificate auction or the older tax deed sale, and most active counties now run tax lien auctions. There is no single statewide answer, so confirm which track your county has chosen before you plan a bid.

What interest rate does an Alabama tax lien earn?

12% per annum simple interest is the statutory maximum in lien auctions. Bidders bid that rate down in 1% increments, so the accrued rate is whatever the winning bid set. On the median Alabama delinquent bill in our live file, $656.72, a full year at the 12% ceiling is $78.81 – and less than that once the rate is bid down.

How long is the redemption period in Alabama?

The ordinary right of redemption is 3 years from the date of sale on both tracks. But an owner who remained in possession may hold a separate equitable redemption right that can last much longer, until the certificate holder ejects them or quiets title.

Why is Alabama tax-deed title considered risky?

The equitable "right of possession" redemption for an owner who never left the property can defeat a quiet-title action years after the 3-year window, so title usually requires ejectment plus quiet title before it is marketable.

When are Alabama tax lien auctions held?

Annually, no earlier than March 1 and no later than June 15, with the exact date set by each county. Registration ahead of the sale is required, and GovEase hosts many county lien auctions online.

Does an Alabama tax lien certificate expire?

Yes. A tax-lien certificate expires 10 years from issuance if no foreclosure action is brought.

How many tax delinquent properties are there in Alabama?

28,911 tax-delinquent properties across 2 Alabama counties in our database as of 21 August 2026, owing an average of $1,566.38 each – $45.3 million in unpaid property tax. A property counts as delinquent when the county's own delinquent file shows back taxes owed on it; full parcel rolls are excluded.

Which Alabama county has the most tax delinquent property?

Of the Alabama counties we hold delinquent data for, Jefferson County (Birmingham) is the largest, with 18,408 records against Mobile County's 10,503 as of 21 August 2026. We do not yet hold delinquent files for Madison, Montgomery, Tuscaloosa or Alabama's other 64 counties, so this is a statement about our coverage, not a ranking of the state.

Where these numbers come from

Every property count, average, median and dollar figure on this page was read from LienSuite's live county database on 21 August 2026, aggregated from 206 county sources and refreshed on an ongoing basis. "Tax delinquent" means the county's own delinquent file shows back taxes owed on the property – we exclude full parcel rolls, which is why this count is in the tens of thousands. Counties with no delinquent records in our data are not counted, so this is coverage of 2 Alabama counties, not all 67, and every Alabama figure here is a Jefferson-plus-Mobile figure rather than a statewide estimate. The $45,285,703.74 total is the sum of tax owed across all 28,911 records, not an extrapolation; the $1,566.38 average is that sum divided by that count, and $656.72 is the true median rather than the average wearing a different name. Deceased and heir figures are research signals on a record, not findings of fact about any owner, and they are reported for Jefferson County only because Mobile County's records have not been through owner enrichment. We publish no estimated property values for Mobile County for the same reason; the Jefferson County median estimated value of $51,700 covers the 17,580 of 18,408 records that carry one. We deliberately publish no years-delinquent breakdown for Alabama: both counties' files carry a single uniform value in that field, so it would describe our import and not the state. Figures move as counties publish new rolls; the date above is the read date. If you believe a figure here is wrong, write to [email protected] and we will check it against the source file.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not legal, tax, or investment advice. Alabama tax lien auctions, tax deed sales, redemption periods and title procedures are governed by the Code of Alabama, Title 40, Chapter 10 (Art. 1 tax-deed sales, sections 40-10-1 et seq.; Art. 7 tax-lien auctions, sections 40-10-180 to 40-10-200), and county practice varies because each county elects its own track. Always confirm current procedures with the county revenue commissioner or tax collector, and consult a licensed Alabama attorney before bidding or taking title.