San Diego County Tax-Default Property Auction — 2026

San Diego County Treasurer-Tax Collector (Treasurer Larry Cohen)

Address: County Administration Center, 1600 Pacific Highway, Room 162, San Diego, CA 92101-2474

Phone: 1-877-829-4732

Email: taxman@sdcounty.ca.gov

Website: https://www.sdttc.com

Grant Street Group's MyTaxSale — https://sdttc.mytaxsale.com (online-only). Same platform family as San Bernardino's sbcounty.mytaxsale.com.

Spring 2026 auction (completed): March 13–18, 2026, online, 8:00 AM PT start; lots closed in staggered intervals through March 18

May 2026 re-offer auction (confirmed): registration deadline Thursday, April 30, 2026 at 5:00 PM PT; bidding May 8–13, 2026

Owner's right of redemption ceases at 5:00 PM on the last business day before each sale starts

Registration through sdttc.mytaxsale.com

Deposit: $1,000 refundable + $35 non-refundable processing fee per bidder (lowest deposit of the top 10 CA counties)

Bid deposits to unsuccessful bidders refunded within 10 business days after auction close

Full payment due within 5 business days of auction close

Acceptable form: cashier's checks ONLY, drawn on State or federally chartered banks, payable to "County of San Diego Treasurer-Tax Collector"

In-person delivery to 1600 Pacific Highway, Room 162 strongly recommended

Personal/business checks, traveler's checks, and credit/debit cards NOT accepted for final payment

Final amount = winning bid + California Documentary Transfer Tax of $0.55 per $500 of sale price

City of San Diego does NOT impose an additional municipal real-property transfer tax (a 2025–2026 county ballot proposal to raise the cap was canceled January 8, 2026)

Default: forfeits deposit + bars bidder from future CA tax sales for up to 5 years (R&T § 3693.1)

2026 spring auction: 686 parcels — but 550 are timeshares (HOA-encumbered fractional weeks). Real fee-simple inventory was 70 improved homes + 66 unimproved lots = ~136 parcels

Projected $18.2M minimum-bid revenue. Some opening bids as low as $100

2026 May re-offer: 400+ parcels carried over from spring sale

Bid increments are set per-parcel inside MyTaxSale (not a county-wide single number)

Owner redemption: 5:00 PM PT last business day before auction starts

Surviving liens (R&T § 3712): IRS liens not discharged by sale (IRS has 120-day right to repurchase); special assessments not included in redemption amount; Mello-Roos community-facilities special taxes; recorded easements; severed water/mineral rights; recorded restrictions

Rescission: challenges must be commenced within 1 year of tax-deed recording, and § 3731 petition to Board within same window. Most title insurers will not insure title until that one year has passed.

Excess proceeds: 1-year claim window from tax-deed recordation (R&T § 4675), strict — no exceptions

County quirk: Heavy timeshare interval inventory (550 of 686 lots in March 2026). Most are HOA-encumbered fractional weeks, not fee-simple parcels. Filter aggressively.

Auction split into March main sale + May re-offer for unsold lots (re-offer formally confirmed and registered separately on sdttc.mytaxsale.com)

County dropped proposed documentary-transfer-tax ballot increase (canceled Jan 8, 2026); DTT remains at standard $0.55/$500

APN-based searches in the Recorder's official-record portal are no longer available online (per CA AB 1785, effective Dec 9, 2024); APN search now in-person at ARCC kiosks only

Sending personal checks, business checks, credit cards, or wires for final payment. Only cashier's checks from chartered banks are accepted (sdttc.com Terms & Conditions)

Assuming the deed wipes out all liens — IRS, Mello-Roos, special assessments, recorded easements/restrictions, and severed water rights survive (R&T § 3712)

Trying to flip immediately — discovering no title insurer will write a policy until 1 year after the tax-deed recording (R&T §§ 3725/3731)

Bidding on the timeshare-heavy inventory without checking — most are encumbered fractional weeks, not fee-simple

Assessor / Recorder (ARCC): https://www.sdarcc.gov

Assessor parcel & secured-roll search: https://www.sdarcc.gov/content/arcc/home/divisions/assessor/property-records.html

Recorded-document search (Acclaim): https://arcc-acclaim.sdcounty.ca.gov

Regional GIS / parcel viewer (SanGIS + SANDAG): https://sdgis.sandag.org and https://www.sangis.org

2026 listings & auction portal: https://sdttc.mytaxsale.com

Property Tax Sale landing: https://www.sdttc.com/content/ttc/en/tax-collection/property-tax-sales.html

Terms & Conditions: https://www.sdttc.com/content/ttc/en/tax-collection/property-tax-sales/terms-conditions.html

Terms of Sale PDF: https://www.sdttc.com/docs/terms-of-sale.pdf

Bidder Registration: https://www.sdttc.com/content/ttc/en/tax-collection/property-tax-sales/bidder-registration.html

Bidder Information: https://www.sdttc.com/content/ttc/en/tax-collection/property-tax-sales/bidder-information.html

Excess Proceeds: https://www.sdttc.com/content/ttc/en/tax-collection/property-tax-sales/excess-proceeds.html