US Tax Lien & Deed Investing Dataset 2026

Every US state and DC, scored 0–10 across nine investing dimensions, each score backed by the statute and a primary source we actually read. Explore by map or table, or download the raw data. Free to use with attribution.

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Colored by composite score — greener is stronger for a retail investor.

West

Mountain

Midwest

South

Northeast

strong (6+) mixed (3–6) weak / no retail market

Click a state to see its tax-sale profile.

Scores are relative rankings for a retail investor, not investment advice. Click any state for the full sourced breakdown.

Need county-level data?

This covers all 50 states + DC. Inside the dashboard we go deeper — county-level auction platforms, schedules, and redemption detail — plus tools to track your own certificates. Free to start.

Methodology

Every state plus the District of Columbia was researched against primary sources — state statutes, county treasurer and tax-collector pages, and official auction platforms — then scored 0–10 on the nine dimensions below. Every state page carries the sources used. Corrections we made against commonly-cited-but-wrong data include Florida (a lien-certificate state, routinely mislabeled a deed state), West Virginia, Connecticut, and Arizona.

Effective Yield

Realistic annualized return after competition bids the rate down — not the statutory ceiling.

Penalty Structure

Whether a flat penalty is owed in full even on a day-one redemption (best) versus slow simple interest (weakest).

Redemption Speed

How fast capital recycles: shorter redemption windows score higher.

Auction Access

Statewide online portals score highest; in-person-only or institutional-bulk-only score lowest.

Low Competition

Rewards states where retail investors aren't crowded out by institutional funds.

Low Capital Entry

Small-dollar liens score high; full-price property purchases score low.

Process Safety

Self-executing lien-to-deed paths score high; judicial foreclosure and strict-notice traps score low.

Legal Stability

Decades-stable statutes score high; recent rewrites (e.g. post-Tyler v. Hennepin) score low.

OTC Availability

Robust over-the-counter / assignment inventory scores high.

Cite this dataset

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.21185506

TaxLienSimple (2026). US State Tax Lien & Deed Investing Dataset. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21185506 · canonical: taxliensimple.com/dataset. CC-BY 4.0 — free to use with attribution.

Also available on Zenodo · Hugging Face · Kaggle · GitHub