City of Lowell Tax Lien Auction

One of the most frequent questions we're asked here at the registry of deeds especially by telephone callers is "when is your next tax lien auction."  We always explain that (1) in Massachusetts, unlike most of the country outside of New England, real estate taxes are collected and monitored by individual communities and not by the county and (2) that the culture in Massachusetts is for communities to retain tax liens until the property is sold or refinanced at which point the community receives payment in full (along with statutory interest of 16% which has to be one of the best investments around).

But in a departure from the local tax collection culture, the city of Lowell will hold a tax lien auction this coming Thursday, April 26, 2012 at 10:00 o’clock A.M. at Lowell City Hall, 375 Merrimack Street, Lowell, MA 01852 in the City Council Chamber.  The sale will be conducted pursuant to the provisions of General Laws, Chapter 60 sec 52.  A list of all the parcels which I believe exceed 300 is online.  Initially, all will be offered in a single bundle, however, if no offer is made for the entire lot, then three sub-bundles will be offered for sale.

The webpage of the city's Tax Title Division has more information about this auction.