Tax Delinquent Property Statistics 2026

LienSuite tracks 56.4M+ properties across 1017 counties in all 50 states. Within that, 1,733,788 are tax-delinquent across 340 counties in 32 states — the properties that owe back taxes or are multiple years delinquent. The stats below break those down.

County records last refreshed: 2026-09-22

Tax-Delinquent Properties
1,733,788
340 counties, 32 states
Avg Back Taxes Owed
$5,056
About $8.8B owed in total
Est. Value (with valuation)
$330.9B
75% have a known value
Deceased-Owner Signals
24,024
Plus 22,289 heir-property signals

Tax-Delinquent Properties by State

Every state where we hold tax-delinquent records — all 32 of them — with counts, average back taxes owed, and owner-status signals. Each state name opens that state's county-by-county breakdown.

StateCountiesDelinquent PropertiesAvg Taxes OwedDeceased SignalsHeir Signals
Florida (FL)37591,617$4,2697,8875,476
Texas (TX)55373,307$4,09012,5199,438
Arkansas (AR)61196,210$60200
Ohio (OH)1092,144$5,565352395
Illinois (IL)181,529$22,84800
Pennsylvania (PA)265,805$7,54951339
North Carolina (NC)950,489$1,4021,1461,744
Georgia (GA)1346,057$3,431913609
Alabama (AL)228,911$1,566279822
California (CA)926,702$13,6608130
Washington (WA)222,805$8,92522
Oklahoma (OK)219,549$1,820137203
Tennessee (TN)117,822$1,14432232
Nebraska (NE)4816,388$1,44241,363
Wisconsin (WI)114,183$4,3963134
Kentucky (KY)2712,791$49200
Arizona (AZ)112,073$1,28513841
Maryland (MD)111,369$37,21392118
Colorado (CO)611,077$4,8885472
Indiana (IN)29,013$4,1361093
Virginia (VA)26,917$2,25914191
Minnesota (MN)25,623$9,38600
Idaho (ID)15,184$2,743130
Connecticut (CT)154,829$14,58500
Iowa (IA)62,629$4,17700
Mississippi (MS)12,587$1,42600
New York (NY)21,648$3,43200
New Jersey (NJ)161,168$6,18800
Missouri (MO)1934$18,5841477
Kansas (KS)2847$1,42900
South Carolina (SC)1834$2,945140
Nevada (NV)1747$86200

Ranked by delinquent property count. "Counties" here means counties holding at least one tax-delinquent record (340 of them, in 32 states) — a delinquency-scoped figure, not the number of counties LienSuite covers overall. Blank average-owed cells are states whose county sources publish the delinquency but not the dollar amount.

Top 10 Counties by Delinquent Property Count

The counties with the most tax-delinquent properties in our data. Each links to that county's live page.

RankCountyStateDelinquent PropertiesAvg Taxes Owed
1Polk CountyFL102,690$2,925
2Dallas CountyTX85,591$3,564
3Cook CountyIL81,529$22,848
4Philadelphia CountyPA54,383$7,302
5Lee CountyFL50,187$2,927
6Duval CountyFL48,721$3,154
7Cuyahoga CountyOH45,607$7,231
8Miami-Dade CountyFL44,217$12,078
9Denton CountyTX39,820$716
10Orange CountyFL36,487$6,630

Key Findings

  • As of 2026-09-22, 1,733,788 properties (1.73 million) are tax-delinquent across 340 counties in 32 states in LienSuite's data.
  • The average tax-delinquent property owes $5,056 in back taxes — roughly $8.8B of unpaid property tax across the counties we cover.
  • The combined estimated market value of delinquent properties with a known valuation (75% of them) is $330.9B, averaging $256K per property.
  • Florida leads with 591,617 delinquent properties (34.1% of total) across 37 counties.
  • Delinquency is concentrated: the 10 largest counties hold 34.0% of every delinquent record we track, and Florida, Texas, Arkansas together account for 67.0%.
  • 24,024 delinquent records carry a deceased-owner signal and 22,289 carry an heir-property signal — the cases where the person who owes the taxes may no longer be the person who can sign.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many tax-delinquent properties are there?

LienSuite tracks 1,733,788 tax-delinquent properties across 340 counties in 32 states as of 2026-09-22. A property counts as delinquent when it owes back taxes or is multiple years behind — the full parcel rolls we also track (properties with no unpaid taxes) are excluded from this number.

How much does the average tax-delinquent property owe?

The average tax-delinquent property owes $5,056 in back taxes. Across every delinquent record we track, that is roughly $8.8B of unpaid property tax in the counties we cover.

Which state has the most tax-delinquent properties?

Florida leads with 591,617 tax-delinquent properties across 37 counties — 34.1% of every delinquent record in our data.

Which county has the most tax-delinquent properties?

Polk County, FL has the most, with 102,690 tax-delinquent properties, averaging $2,925 owed per property.

How concentrated are tax-delinquent properties?

Very. The 10 largest counties hold 589,232 of the 1,733,788 tax-delinquent properties we track — 34.0% of the national total — and just three states (Florida, Texas, Arkansas) account for 67.0% of it. Delinquency is a big-county story, not an evenly spread one.

Methodology

LienSuite aggregates property data directly from county appraisal and tax-collector records. A property counts as tax-delinquent when it owes back taxes or is multiple years delinquent — the same definition used throughout the product. We deliberately exclude the rest of the appraisal/parcel roll (properties with no unpaid taxes), so the counts on this page reflect real delinquent inventory rather than every parcel in a county. The figures above are read from our per-county record caches every time this page rebuilds (at most hourly), so they move as new county records are imported — the date above is when those caches were last refreshed. Average taxes owed is weighted by each county's record count. Estimated-value figures cover only the 75% of delinquent properties with a known valuation, and are labelled as estimates everywhere they appear.

Full provenance — which county sources the records come from, how often they refresh, and what is checked before a number is published — is on the data methodology page.

Cite This Data

This data is free to reference. Please use the following citation format:

LienSuite. "Tax Delinquent Property Statistics 2026." LienSuite.com, 2026-09-22. https://liensuite.com/stats

Data sourced from county appraisal and tax-collector records. Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Attribution required.

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