The Lake County treasurer said Tuesday that the 2012 tax sale was a $17.8 million success.
"It one of the best we ever had," Treasurer John Petalas said at the end of the 10-day Internet-driven sale of tax delinquent real estate.
Petalas said his online auctioneer, Indianapolis-based SRI, received higher-than-normal bids from real estate speculators across the country who bought nearly 900 of the more than 17,000 parcels on offer.
The majority of those 17,000 are long-vacant properties in the county's urban north that have failed to sell in years past but must be repeatedly put on the tax sale list as required by law.
The online auction replaced traditional sales during which bidders had to be present in the Lake County Government Complex auditorium for hours as the auctioneers went through properties one by one. This year bidders could access the sale on personal or public computers.
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Petalas said he expects to bring in several million dollars more from nearly 500 property owners who avoided having their real estate sold by signing on to his office's amnesty plan. That plan forgives all late fees against anyone who failed to pay taxes last year or in prior years, if current and old taxes and special assessments are paid in full by July 1.
Petalas said the only higher tax sale outcome in recent history was $24 million in 1999.
