Berks County, PA: the September 2026 upset tax sale in numbers
Published November 7, 2026. Data: Berks County Tax Claim Bureau sale lists. Owner and bidder names are left out on purpose.
The Berks County Tax Claim Bureau ran its 2026 upset sale online through Bid4Assets, with bidding scheduled from 10 a.m. on September 10 to 10 a.m. on September 11, 2026. Two Bureau files let you check the result parcel by parcel. The sale-day list, printed at 10:06 a.m. on September 11, shows 68 parcels with a fixed bid price, assessed value, and the county fees and transfer tax. The sold list, last updated October 9, 2026, shows 36 sales with the winning bid for each. Matching the two by parcel number (PIN) gives the figures below.
The short version
| Measure | 2026 upset sale |
|---|---|
| Parcels on the sale-day list | 68 |
| Parcels on the sold list | 36 |
| Fixed bid prices, all 68 parcels | $756,000 total, $6,500 median |
| Fixed bid prices, the 36 that sold | $333,000 total, $8,000 median |
| Winning bids, the 36 that sold | $1,642,034 total, $39,883.50 median |
| Median ratio of winning bid to fixed price (per sale) | 4.61x |
| Sold at exactly the fixed price | 6 |
| Sold at 5x the fixed price or more | 17 |
| Highest multiple | 24x ($4,000 fixed, $96,000 bid) |
The 2026 conditions of sale say the first bid must equal the fixed bid price and each higher bid must add at least $100. The fixed price works as a floor. On 30 of the 36 sales, bidders went past it.
Sales by fixed price
The 32 parcels that are not on the sold list had a median fixed price of $5,000. Here is how sales broke down by fixed price:
| Fixed bid price | On the list | Sold |
|---|---|---|
| $2,000 or less | 18 | 11 |
| $2,001 to $10,000 | 26 | 11 |
| Over $10,000 | 24 | 14 |
The cheapest band sold at the highest rate (11 of 18) and the middle band at the lowest (11 of 26).
Reading against the rest of the county
The City of Reading supplied 32 of the 68 parcels and 21 of the 36 sales. Reading sales had a median winning bid of $45,200, a median of 5.65 times the fixed price. The other 15 sales, spread across the county's boroughs and townships, had a median winning bid of $33,000, and the median sale went for 2.2 times its fixed price. All four sales at 10x or more were Reading parcels.
What the winning bid leaves out
The winning bid is only part of what you pay. The conditions of sale add a recording fee of $88, a document preparation fee of $25, a $250 demolition fund fee, and the realty transfer tax. Bid4Assets' Berks storefront adds a $35 administrative fee per parcel won and a 2.5% buyer's premium with a $100 minimum.
The sale-day list prints a transfer tax figure for every parcel. On this list it works out to exactly 15.6% of assessed value for each City of Reading parcel and 6.24% for every other parcel that carries the tax. The Bureau's FAQ says the vendor emails the final amount due after the auction, so treat the list figure as the estimate it is until that email arrives.
Using the list's transfer tax plus the fees above, the estimated extra costs on the 36 sales work out to:
- a median of about $5,030 per parcel, or 12.6% of the winning bid;
- more than 20% of the winning bid on 12 parcels;
- as much as 54% of the bid on a $2,000 Reading sale, where fees and transfer tax added about $1,075.
The median Reading sale shows the math. A parcel with an $8,000 fixed price and a $20,600 assessed value sold for $45,200. The list's transfer tax was $3,213.60. Add $88, $25, $250, $35 and a $1,130 premium, and the buyer would owe about $4,742 on top of the bid by this estimate.
Parcels with no transfer tax
Eight parcels on the list have a PIN ending in a "T" code and show $0 transfer tax and $0 recording fee. Two of them sold, each at its fixed price ($3,000 and $2,000). The sources do not explain the T suffix. The conditions say the Bureau issues a deed or a bill of sale, and that a lien on a mobile or manufactured home's certificate of title is not affected by a real estate tax sale. Find out what a T-code PIN covers before you bid on one.
Who bought
The 36 parcels went to 25 different bidder email addresses. Nine of those addresses won two or more parcels, and together they took 20 of the 36. No single address won more than three. By mailing address, 32 sales went to Pennsylvania buyers, 3 to New York and 1 to New Jersey.
Six years of Berks upset sales
The Bureau posts a sold list for every upset sale back to 2021. Counting each list's rows and totaling its winning bids:
| Upset sale | Parcels sold | Median winning bid | Winning bids, total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 48 | $10,600 | $1,255,200 |
| 2022* | 73 | $10,200 | $1,709,800 |
| 2023 | 64 | $20,800 | $1,776,798 |
| 2024 | 54 | $38,850 | $2,693,300 |
| 2025 | 74 | $38,350 | $3,922,200 |
| 2026 | 36 | $39,883.50 | $1,642,034 |
*The 2022 file is titled "Preliminary Sold Report" and was printed September 30, 2022. The sold lists show sales only, so they cannot tell you how many parcels each earlier sale offered.
Median winning bids were about $10,000 to $11,000 in 2021 and 2022 and about $38,000 to $40,000 from 2024 to 2026. Each year sold a different mix of parcels, so this is not a like-for-like price change. The 2026 sale sold the fewest parcels of the six.
After the gavel
- Settlement: the 2026 conditions set a deadline of Monday, September 14, 2026. Missing it forfeits the $1,000 deposit and bars the bidder from future Berks sales.
- Title: the conditions say "THIS IS AN UPSET TAX SALE - not a free and clear sale!" and that each sale conveys the property "under and subject to the lien of every recorded obligation, claim, lien, estate, mortgage, ground rent, and Commonwealth tax lien" on it. The Bureau's FAQ recommends a professional title search. The same conditions also say the Bureau has no responsibility for the quality of title and advise consulting an attorney; condition 10 uses broader "absolute title" wording, so read the full conditions.
- Deed: the Bureau says delivery of the deed or bill of sale takes about four to six months, and it may take longer if legal action challenges the sale.
- Challenges: the FAQ says "There is no 'redemption period' in Berks County, and no statute of limitations for a previous owner to object to the sale." It adds that the Bureau will set a sale aside if it finds the property should not have been exposed to sale.
- Unsold parcels: per the FAQ, they move toward the judicial sale (sold free and clear), typically held in June, and parcels unsold there go to the repository list, open March 1 to October 31 for sealed bids by mail, with each winning bid sent to the taxing authorities for approval.
Next steps
For registration steps, contacts and the Bureau's sale schedule, see the Berks County, Pennsylvania tax sale page on Tax Sale Atlas. For how upset, judicial and repository sales differ statewide, read how Pennsylvania tax sales work. To compare Berks with other counties, start from the list of Pennsylvania counties.
Sources
- Tax Sale Information (sale lists, conditions, FAQ, past sold lists). Berks County Tax Claim Bureau. Accessed November 7, 2026. https://www.berkspa.gov/departments/tax-claim-bureau/tax-sale-information
- Upset Tax Sale, September 10-11, 2026: Active Sale List as of 09-11-26 (final). Berks County Tax Claim Bureau. Printed September 11, 2026. https://www.berkspa.gov/getmedia/59e839d7-2d57-4b31-9d83-d58b20c5d75d/Active-Sale-List-As-of-09-11-26-FINAL.pdf
- 2026 Upset Sale Sold List. Berks County Tax Claim Bureau. Last updated October 9, 2026. https://www.berkspa.gov/getmedia/c61bbe14-0be9-472d-8bb5-54e455fa61ff/2026-Upset-Sale-Sold-List.pdf
- Upset Tax Sale Conditions of Sale, 2026. Berks County Tax Claim Bureau. 2026. https://www.berkspa.gov/getmedia/473caf85-9f58-4468-9ed9-7e5b57b8a8fa/2026-Upset-Conditions.pdf
- Frequently Asked Questions: Upset and Judicial Tax Sales. Berks County Tax Claim Bureau. Last updated August 29, 2022. https://www.berkspa.gov/getmedia/e6ac15f0-c722-4d95-84ee-15bea366d882/Sale-FAQs.pdf
- Upset Sale Sold Lists, 2021 to 2025. Berks County Tax Claim Bureau. https://www.berkspa.gov/departments/tax-claim-bureau/tax-sale-information
- Berks County Tax Claim Bureau storefront. Bid4Assets. Accessed November 7, 2026. https://www.bid4assets.com/berkstcbsales