Property Tax Lien Foreclosure History
4 4
2015: lost-to-sale data still being gathered
15 2015 87 87
2016: lost-to-sale data still being gathered
16 2016 65 65
2017: lost-to-sale data still being gathered
17 2017 87 87
2018: lost-to-sale data still being gathered
18 2018 42 42
2019: lost-to-sale data still being gathered
19 2019 17 17
2020: lost-to-sale data still being gathered
20 2020 25 25
2021: lost-to-sale data still being gathered
21 2021 10 10
2022: lost-to-sale data still being gathered
22 2022 14 14
2023: lost-to-sale data still being gathered
23 2023 10 10
2024: lost-to-sale data still being gathered
24 2024 19 19
2025: lost-to-sale data still being gathered
25 2025 Why are 2019–2021 cases mostly still active?
Ohio's COVID-19 emergency orders (beginning March 2020) imposed a foreclosure
moratorium that paused most delinquent tax lien proceedings for over a year.
Cases filed before and during the freeze accumulated in county courts and many
are still working toward a final outcome — either a sheriff sale or a dismissal
once the homeowner resolves the debt.
Why do some rows below show a dash (—)?
Finding out whether a case was lost to sheriff sale, dismissed, or is
still pending requires opening and reading each individual court case
one at a time — it isn't reported anywhere as a simple summary number.
We are actively working through this county-by-county for all Ohio
counties. A dash means we don't have that breakdown yet ,
not that the outcome was zero.
Why does Assessment Ratio have gaps?
The Ohio Department of Taxation only publishes this figure for years
when Lake County underwent its sexennial reappraisal or
triennial update — not every year in between. A dash means no study
was conducted that year, not that the county was accurately assessed.
Metric 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 Treasurer Filed Foreclosures Treasurer Filed Foreclosures
Tax lien foreclosure cases the county Treasurer filed against properties with unpaid property taxes — usually brought by the county Prosecutor on the Treasurer's behalf. Counted from the county's own court records, year by year; the source is linked below this table.
4 87 65 87 42 17 25 10 14 10 19 Tax Ease Ohio Filed Foreclosures Tax Ease Ohio Filed Foreclosures
Foreclosure cases filed by Tax Ease Ohio — a private company that bought delinquent tax liens from the county and then went to court to collect on them. Ohio counties may sell tax liens this way under ORC §§5721.30–5721.43, and once sold it is the investor, not the county, that files the case.
0 0 0 100 44 49 21 21 3 13 0 NAR Ohio LLC Filed Foreclosures NAR Ohio LLC Filed Foreclosures
Foreclosure cases filed by NAR Ohio LLC, a third-party investor that buys delinquent tax liens from counties and forecloses on them itself. Kept on its own row so each company's filings can be read separately.
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 24 50 Lost to Sale Lost to Sale
Cases that ended with the property sold at sheriff's sale — the owner lost the home. This can only be determined by reading each case on the court docket, so a dash means we don't have that breakdown for the year yet, not that the number was zero.
— — — — — — — — — — — Dismissed Dismissed
Cases closed without a sheriff's sale — typically because the owner paid off the delinquent taxes or worked out a payment plan. Also read case by case from the docket.
— — — — — — — — — — — Pending Pending
Cases filed but not yet resolved by a sheriff's sale, dismissal, or other closure — still working their way through the court system. Where the court publishes a case status we use it directly; otherwise this is that year's filings minus the cases lost to sale and dismissed.
— — — — — — — — — — — % Lost % Lost
Lost to Sale divided by Treasurer Filed Foreclosures for the same year, rounded to a whole percent. A case filed one year may not sell until a later one, so read this as that year's rate rather than the eventual fate of that year's exact cases.
— — — — — — — — — — — Median Home Value $147,900 $149,300 $150,100 $153,100 $156,200 $160,200 $166,200 $189,600 $199,900 $214,100 — % Value Change % Value Change
Year-over-year change in the Median Home Value row above, rounded to the nearest whole percent. It is only computed when that year and the one before it both have a value, so it is never carried across a gap in the data.
— 1% 1% 2% 2% 3% 4% 14% 5% 7% — Assessment Ratio Assessment Ratio
How close the county auditor's appraised values are to what homes actually sell for. The Ohio Department of Taxation compares the auditor's appraised value to the real sale price on arm's-length sales and publishes a median ratio for each city and township; this figure combines those into one county number, weighted by each area's number of sales. 100% means appraisals matched sale prices. 75% means the typical home was appraised at about three-quarters of what it sold for; above 100% means the typical home was appraised for more than it sold for. It describes the county as a whole — any individual property can be far off it. (Ohio bills tax on 35% of appraised value; that 35% is fixed by statute and is not what this ratio measures.)
90.19% 88.45% 86.17% 89.97% 85.79% 79.35% 84.1% 77.14% 73.51% — —
What This Data Means
Since 2015, 705 Lake County families
have had a tax lien foreclosure filed against their home — each one a
household at risk of losing everything over a debt to the county.
Tax lien foreclosures in Lake County have increased by 1625% since 2015.
Help stop this from happening to more Ohio families — find a petition
signing location near you in Lake County.
↑ Find a signing location in Lake County
About this data: Data obtained from the Lake County Clerk of Courts' online case search, reflecting foreclosure cases filed by the Prosecutor's office on behalf of the County Treasurer, 2015–2025 (380 cases). Lake County sells its delinquent tax lien certificates as a single bundled portfolio under Ohio Revised Code §§ 5721.30–5721.43. Two investors have held these certificates during the study period — Tax Ease Ohio (certificates sold prior to 2021, 251 cases filed) and NAR Solutions/NAR Ohio LLC (2021 to present, 74 cases filed) — confirmed by the Treasurer's own website: https://www.lakecountyohio.gov/treasurer/sold-tax-lien-certificates/ Median home value for 2025 is not available: the Census Bureau's American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (the source for this row) had not yet published that vintage as of this data's retrieval date. Assessment ratio data is not available for 2024-2025: neither of the Ohio Department of Taxation's sales-ratio studies (SRD04 or the archived PS1&2) covers those year(s) for this county.
Source: Lake County Clerk of Courts (Name Search case type).
These are property tax lien foreclosures only — not mortgage foreclosures.
Assessment ratio: Ohio Department of Taxation, SRD04 — Residential Sales Statistics by Political Subdivision
(2020–present) and PS1&2 — Sales Ratios of Real Property, By Class of Property and County
(2015–2018, archived).
All data is sourced from publicly available government records including
individual county court portals, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the Ohio
Department of Taxation. AxOHTax makes no warranty as to the accuracy of
compiled figures. Users should verify data independently for official
purposes.
