The 2022 scavenger sale results are in

More people successfully bid on properties in 2022 than were even registered in 2019

Chicago Cityscape now has the results of the 2022 Scavenger Sale that the Cook County Treasurer conducted in February. The level of bidding activity far surpassed the last sale in 2019; three times more properties were sold to private buyers in 2022 than in 2019.

Our Scavenger Sale Portal has been updated and everyone can see the results of the scavenger sale: whether a property was sold, to whom, where the property is, and for how much.

Note to readers: “Sold” is used loosely in the context of Cook County scavenger sales. Winning bidders do not acquire a deed to the property but rather a tax certificate that allows them to redeem the certificate for the deed if the owner does not pay their property taxes during the redemption period (24 months for residential properties and six months for all other properties).

This year over 900 people and businesses registered as bidders and 5,180 properties out of 27,484 were sold to private buyers. (“Private” means that the bidder was not the Cook County Land Bank Authority nor another government in Cook County). In 2019 there were 362 registered bidders, and 1,749 properties out of 28,466 were sold to private buyers.

The Cook County Land Bank Authority acquired fewer properties compared to the last three sales (2015, 2017, 2019). In 2022 the CCLBA acquired 1,951 properties compared to an average of 8,843 in the last three sales.

The increase in properties acquired by private buyers is likely due to several reasons: The CCLBA’s strategy to be more selective in acquiring properties, leaving more properties available for private buyers to bid on; the Cook County Treasurer publishing a list of available properties for free; and Chicago Cityscape creating a free portal to prospect the nearly 30,000 properties.

How to look up scavenger sale results

The results are in the same Scavenger Sale Portal where people prospected properties in February. Some data is new, though: the table shows the auction result, buyer name, and winning bid amount.

In the filters, choose to show only those properties with a specific result:

• Sold
• Not sold (called Offered Not Sold)
• Acquired by the Cook County Land Bank Authority (“No Cash Bid - Land Bank Authority”)
• Acquired by another government agency (“No Cash Bid - Other gov’t agency”)

You can also filter by the buyer name. Tip: If you see a buyer’s name more than once, search for their name to show all of the properties they acquired.

Finally, you can search for a single PIN. Perhaps you only to track the results of a few properties; search for them one PIN at a time. If you want to search for more than a few, it’s probably more efficient to download the data table.

The preexisting filters are still there: Municipality, Chicago community area, ZIP code, property type, bid date, potential geographically-based financial incentives, and proximity to transit facilities.

Preparing for the next sale

Properties that didn’t sell at this year’s scavenger sale will be listed on the next one — that’s 19,848 properties.

In the Scavenger Sale data table or map, click on the address or PIN to open Chicago Cityscape’s Address Snapshot report to learn more about the property and decide if you should try to acquire it.

This report, which is available to Cityscape Real Estate Pro members, has zoning information (limited to Chicago, Oak Park, and Evanston), a full list of financial & development incentives, nearby property sales, and local amenities and proposed projects. (Access a sample report.)

Additionally, the Cook County Treasurer’s Annual Tax Sale will be conducted in May and we’ve integrated that property list into our Property Finder tool. If you’re not already familiar with Property Finder, read this Knowledge Base article or request a demonstration.

The 2022 scavenger sale results are in was originally published in Chicago Cityscape’s Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.