Seattle's Tax Delinquency Sale Draws a Crowd
A rare look at how the city handled unpaid property taxes in 1892, with far fewer lots left on the market than in previous years.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The interest in the sale of property for delinquent city taxes continued unabated until the close at noon yesterday. A large crowd gathered at the porch of the city hall, and as soon as City Treasurer Krug made the first call the competition began. During the entire sale there were barely fifty pieces bid in by the city, the remainder of the fifty lots all being readily taken. Last year the city bid in over 1,200 lots, so that the difference this year was most remarkable. During the sale, over $1,000 was taken in cash, but where the bidders were well known they were asked to defer tender of payment until the certificates are made out, so as to facilitate the sale and avoid keeping the bidders waiting. It will take fully a month to make out the certificates.
“Last year the city bid in over 1,200 lots, so that the difference this year was most remarkable.”
While modern tax foreclosures are now processed through county systems rather than front-porch auctions, the high demand for property described in this 1892 report highlights Seattle's long-standing history as a land-value-obsessed market. Today's civic discourse often focuses on land use and density, but the underlying mechanism—securing property through city-managed auctions—was the primary way the frontier city built its private tax base.
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