Westmoreland tax delinquent property sale nets $1.5 million

Bryaunt Williams came to bid.

Williams, a contractor from Tarentum, was one of the more than 160 potential buyers who came to the Westmoreland County Courthouse on Monday to find a deal during the annual sale of tax delinquent properties.

“I was doing remodeling work on a home last year, and a buddy said he purchased a property at the tax sale. So I decided to give it a try,” Williams said.

Williams was successful in his one bid and agreed to pay $2,300 for a rental home in New Kensington.

The county’s annual tax sale has generated more than a million dollars in each of the past two years, including a record $1.7 million received last year, when about 136 properties were sold at auction.

Linda Kuchar, acting director of the county’s tax office, said 125 properties sold Monday for about $1.5 million.

“It was a pretty good number for us this year,” Kuchar said.

Parcels with property taxes in arrears for at least two years were eligible to be sold. The opening bid prices equaled the taxes owed.

More than 400 properties were included in the sale that returned to the courthouse on Monday.

The 2020 sale was moved to Westmoreland County Community College to allow for social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic. Some virus precautions continued this year with bidders rotating in and out of the auction room throughout the three-hour sale.

Monday’s sale was the first where bidders were required to register with the county at least 10 days before. Kuchar said 161 bidders participated. About a dozen potential bidders who did not register were turned away, she said.