Cambria County, PA tax sales
How tax deed sales work in Cambria County, seat of Ebensburg: sale calendar, auction platform, over-the-counter lists, and the offices that run each sale.
New to tax sales? Read how Pennsylvania tax sales work or look terms up in the glossary.
- Announcements
- Judicial sale parcels are advertised at least 30 days ahead in the Tribune Democrat and the Cambria County Legal Journal.
- Format
- In person
- Registration
- There will be no documents accepted for registration after Friday, August 28, 2026.
- County office
- (814) 472-1445
On this page
How Cambria County sells delinquent taxes
Tax deed sale
- Run by
- Cambria County Tax Claim Bureau
- Frequency
- annual
- Registration
- There will be no documents accepted for registration after Friday, August 28, 2026.
- Sale list
- September 14, 2026 Upset Sale list
When it runs
Registration and deposit
In person only, and the Bureau states "All Bidders must register in person. There are NO EXCEPTIONS." For the September 14, 2026 upset sale, "Bidder Registration will be from Monday, August 17, 2026 through Friday, August 28, 2026 in the Tax Claim Bureau office" and "There will be no documents accepted for registration after Friday, August 28, 2026." Every bidder files a completed Bidder Application plus a notarized Bidder Affidavit and shows valid government issued photo ID; the Bureau notes there is no notary public in the courthouse. The affidavit certifies the bidder has no delinquent Pennsylvania real estate taxes or municipal bills, is not related to the owner and holds no interest in the property, has not had a landlord license revoked, and has no uncorrected housing code violations. The fee is "$20.00 per bidder, paid in cash on the day of registering" and is non refundable; money order or certified funds are also accepted, but no personal checks. An LLC "MUST bring a fully executed copy of the LLC's Operating Agreement" plus the names, addresses and phone numbers of all members and managers; a corporation must supply officer names, business address and phone, and proof of signing authority. Each person taking title must register separately, though only one registered bidder needs to attend. No application is accepted after 4:00 PM on the last day of a registration period, and none on the day of the sale. Judicial and private sales use their own two week registration windows ending at least ten days before the sale date; repository bidders register when they place the bid.
Sale format and venue
Cambria County tax sale list and auction calendar
For Cambria County tax sale 2026 searches, use the county-run sources below rather than a copied parcel list, and confirm the parcel, registration cutoff, deposit, and payment deadline against the county before you bid.
Get the advertised list
Use September 14, 2026 Upset Sale list for the current advertised parcels, then recheck it before the auction.Register to bid
Sale day
The sale is live and in person; there is no online bidding platform. Confirm the venue and hour with the county office before you go.Confirm with the office
If the list, platform, and notice disagree, use Cambria County Tax Claim Bureau as the source to confirm which parcels are actually offered.
Before you bid in Cambria County
4 checks
Start with the live sale list
Pull the current advertised parcels from September 14, 2026 Upset Sale list. Lists can change before the sale, so recheck the county source before you price a parcel.Confirm registration and deposit
In person only, and the Bureau states "All Bidders must register in person. There are NO EXCEPTIONS." For the September 14, 2026 upset sale, "Bidder Registration will be from Monday, August 17, 2026 through Friday, August 28, 2026 in the Tax Claim Bureau office" and "There will be no documents accepted for registration after Friday, August 28, 2026." Every bidder files a completed Bidder Application plus a notarized Bidder Affidavit and shows valid government issued photo ID; the Bureau notes there is no notary public in the courthouse. The affidavit certifies the bidder has no delinquent Pennsylvania real estate taxes or municipal bills, is not related to the owner and holds no interest in the property, has not had a landlord license revoked, and has no uncorrected housing code violations. The fee is "$20.00 per bidder, paid in cash on the day of registering" and is non refundable; money order or certified funds are also accepted, but no personal checks. An LLC "MUST bring a fully executed copy of the LLC's Operating Agreement" plus the names, addresses and phone numbers of all members and managers; a corporation must supply officer names, business address and phone, and proof of signing authority. Each person taking title must register separately, though only one registered bidder needs to attend. No application is accepted after 4:00 PM on the last day of a registration period, and none on the day of the sale. Judicial and private sales use their own two week registration windows ending at least ten days before the sale date; repository bidders register when they place the bid.
Check the state rules that change the bid
Read the Pennsylvania due-diligence checklist before bidding. Redemption, liens that survive a tax deed, title cleanup, and payment deadlines can change what a parcel is worth.Set a walk-away number
Work out what the parcel is actually worth with the rural land value estimator, then turn it into a ceiling with the tax deed max-bid calculator.
Over-the-counter (leftover) purchases
unsold properties
Every Real Estate Tax Sale Law county keeps a repository for unsold properties: anything still unsold after a judicial sale is placed there, and the bureau must make the list available to the public during normal office hours. The bureau may, with the written consent of each taxing district where the property sits, set a minimum purchase price and accept any offer at or above it without court approval and without published notice. Consent is deemed given if a district does not respond within 60 days, and a district may require the buyer to appear before its governing body. The buyer files an affidavit with the same information a bidder registration requires. The deed conveys free and clear of all tax and municipal claims, mortgages, liens, charges and estates except separately taxed ground rents, and the bureau records it at the buyer's expense. A former owner may not buy their own property out of the repository. Prices, forms and turnaround are set county by county, so confirm the process with the tax claim bureau.
New to this path? Read how over-the-counter purchases work.
Use the arrow keys to switch between these sections.
County offices
Tax sale office
County notes
- Director of record at the time of research: Larissa M. Gavlak. Staff listed as Debbie Makin, Tax Claim Specialist, and Janet Rose, Account Clerk.
- Office hours listed as Monday through Friday, 9 A.M. to 4 P.M., at the courthouse at 200 South Center Street, Ebensburg.
- Beginning April 1, 2025 a $250.00 fee is added to the costs of every property sold at any Cambria County tax sale, upset, judicial, private or repository, under Cambria County Ordinance #5 of 2024. Budget for it on top of transfer tax, recording, acknowledgment, deed preparation, advertising and demolition fund fees.
- Private sales are capped at 50 properties and each bidder may place up to four properties on that list per sale, though any registered bidder may bid on all eligible parcels at the auction.
- Upset sale parcels are advertised at least 30 days before the sale in the Tribune Democrat, the Cambria County Legal Journal and Mainline Newspaper, typically the second week of July, and are posted by the Cambria County Sheriff's Office at least 10 days before the sale, typically the third week of August. Judicial sale parcels are advertised at least 30 days ahead in the Tribune Democrat and the Cambria County Legal Journal.
- After the upset sale the results are confirmed nisi by the president judge, owners get 30 days from that order to file objections, and the sale becomes final when the absolute order is signed. The Bureau records the deed and mails the buyer when it is ready to collect. Judicial sale deeds are recorded about 20 days after the sale, private sale deeds about a month after.
- The list of parcels left unsold after the upset sale, the pool eligible for judicial and private sale, is kept in the Bureau office and sold as a packet for $5.00, and is also published on the Tax Claim page under Properties Available for Sale. A separate Repository Sale List is published there too.
- Beginning with the 2025 tax year, delinquent Central Cambria School District real estate taxes are collected by Portnoff Law Associates at (866) 211-9466 rather than by the Bureau, covering properties in Cambria Township, Ebensburg Borough and Jackson Township.
- The Tax Claim page links a Map of Tax Sale Eligible Properties hosted on the county ArcGIS site and the INFOCON County Access System, both useful for parcel research before bidding.
- The Bureau does not inspect properties. Its private sale procedures state parcels are sold as is, without warranty as to physical or structural condition or habitability, and that municipal liens for water, sewer, garbage, codes and sewer compliance are the buyer's problem to research.
Pennsylvania rules
- Redemption
- Under the Real Estate Tax Sale Law there is no redemption of any property after the actual sale. The owner's last opportunity is to discharge the tax claim before the sale by paying the claim and interest, any other tax claim or judgment and interest, all accrued unpaid taxes, and the record costs, or a smaller amount the political subdivision agrees to accept. Payment before July 1 of the year following the notice of claim removes the property from the sale list entirely. Payment after that date but before the actual sale still stops the sale, though the parcel and the owner's name may already appear in the advertising.
- Deed deposit
- The Real Estate Tax Sale Law sets no deposit and no buyer premium. What it does require is pre-registration: anyone intending to bid at an upset or judicial sale must appear and register at the bureau no less than 10 days before the sale, once per scheduled sale, and a county may charge a fee for filing the application. The application names the applicant, and every officer, member and manager if the applicant is not an individual, and carries an affidavit that the applicant owes no delinquent real estate taxes anywhere in the Commonwealth, has no municipal utility bill more than one year outstanding, is not acting for a person barred under section 601(d), and has not let an uncorrected housing code violation stand after conviction in the last three years. A false statement is prosecutable as a second degree misdemeanor. The bureau sends the list of registered bidders to every municipality in the county at least five days before the sale.
- Surplus proceeds
- The bureau distributes tax-sale proceeds, after repaying costs advanced by taxing districts and its own 5 percent commission, in this order: Commonwealth tax liens, then the taxing districts in proportion to the taxes due them, then taxing districts or municipal authorities for municipal claims, then mortgagees and other lien holders in order of record priority whether or not the sale discharged them, and last the owner of the property. Before paying anything out the bureau petitions the court of common pleas to confirm the schedule of distribution, and an absolute confirmation is final and nonappealable as to every listed distributee. If no claim for the owner's balance is presented within three years of the sale, that balance goes to the taxing districts pro rata and the county keeps the interest it earned.
A tax deed does not convey marketable title. Most buyers file a quiet title action before they can resell or insure the property. See the due diligence guide.
Frequently asked questions
Does Cambria County, Pennsylvania sell tax liens or tax deeds?
How often does Cambria County hold tax deed sales?
I own a property in this sale. Can I stop it?
Where can I find the Cambria County tax sale list?
Verified Aug 10, 2026 against official county and state sources.
Tax Sale Atlas publishes educational information about public tax sale processes. This is not legal, financial, or investment advice. Rules, dates, and fees change; confirm with the county office before you bid.
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