According to a September 11 report from The Illinois Answers Project, “Illinois is the only state that has yet to reform its tax sale laws” after the Supreme Court found such laws to be unconstitutional and a process that can “cost homeowners their residences.”

The Answers Project is a nonpartisan news service published by the Better Government Association,  a nonprofit full-service watchdog organization in Illinois.

Under the currently practice, according to the Answers Project, “county treasurers in Illinois have collected unpaid property tax bills by selling the debt to private investors. If homeowners behind on their taxes fail to repay the debt plus interest, those investors can get the deed to their homes. In those cases, the homeowners lose the entire value of their residences, even though they often owe only a fraction of that amount.”

In fact, according to a May 2025 article in Injustice Watch,  a nonprofit publication that focuses on the Cook County Court System, “More than half of all homes were taken following an initial property tax debt of $1,600 or less, records show. A dozen started out owing less than $200.” 

A July Issue Brief from the Illinois State Association of Counties, states that “Recent data reveals that Illinois’ property tax sale system disproportionately harms Black homeowners, particularly in Cook County. Since 2019, more than 1,000 owner-occupied homes—primarily in majority-Black neighborhoods like Englewood and Roseland—have been lost through tax foreclosures. Studies show that over 70% of evicted homeowners in Cook County are Black, and that tax sale activity is heavily concentrated in communities of color. In many cases, homeowners lose properties worth over $100,000 to satisfy tax debts averaging just $2,000, resulting in substantial loss of generational wealth.”

This is an extreme case, and potentially law suits will help convince Illinois to act like the other 49 states and follow the Supreme Courts findings, but until then this tax sale policy is the “most abusive tax forfeiture system” in the country according to Kolleen Lindgren, a legal policy manager for Pacific Legal Foundation, reports Injustice Watch.

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