Kendall's May tax bill and the annual tax sale
Kendall County mails one property tax bill a year, in May, and splits it into two equal installments. No second bill comes. Last year's installments, for 2024 taxes paid in 2025, were due June 4 and September 4, so check your 2026 bill for this year's dates. A late installment picks up a 1.5 percent penalty each month.
Unpaid taxes go to the annual tax sale, where a buyer pays them and gets a lien, not the house. Last year's sale ran October 27, 2025, so ask the Treasurer's office for the 2026 date. Bidders compete on the penalty rate. A home with one to six units can generally be redeemed for up to three years from the sale on certificates issued on or after July 10, 2026, and older certificates may follow the earlier version of the law. Near the end of redemption, the lien buyer can ask the court for a deed.
Census figures put the county's median home value at $322,400. If you live in the home, the general homestead exemption takes up to $6,000 off your equalized value in Kendall, and owners 65 and older can claim more. Seniors can also ask the Treasurer's office (630-553-4124) about the Real Estate Tax Deferral program.
One Yorkville courthouse hears every Kendall foreclosure
Every Kendall foreclosure is heard at the Kendall County Courthouse in Yorkville. Illinois only allows foreclosure through the courts, so nothing happens to your title without a judge. The court opened 234 new foreclosure cases in 2023, and 140 were still open when the year ended. The Circuit Clerk's chancery and foreclosure page lists standard court forms, and no county mediation program shows up there.
The deadlines come from state law. Early in the case you can reinstate by paying the missed amounts and costs, not the whole accelerated balance. Redemption runs until the later of 7 months from service or 3 months from the judgment, and the judicial sale comes after that, not before. A judge then has to confirm the sale at a hearing before the buyer gets possession. If the sale brings in more than what's owed, the clerk's form list includes a Petition for Turnover of Surplus Funds for claiming it. The Illinois foreclosure timeline and the deadline calculator lay out each date.
From 1953 Big Grove farmhouses to 2006 Seward subdivisions
Census estimates put the county's median home at a 2001 build year, and 84 percent of occupied homes are lived in by their owners. Oswego Township has a median build year of 1998. Na-Au-Say and Seward townships in the southeast are newer still, at 2005 and 2006.
Then the older pockets. The Boulder Hill census-designated place has a median build year of 1971. Big Grove Township's median home dates to 1953, and the village of Newark's to 1965. Older homes like these bring federal lead-paint disclosure rules into the sale, and they give a buyer's inspector more to write up, so price them with repairs in mind.
What a $400,000 Kendall sale leaves you
Countywide, Redfin put the May 2026 median sale price at $400,000, up 1.3 percent from a year earlier, with 224 homes sold and a median of 53 days on market. Start there. Commission at about 4.9 percent, Clever's Illinois average (updated September 2026), is roughly $19,600. Closing costs around 1.2 percent add about $4,800. A title company's stamp list shows the state stamp at $0.50 per $500 and Kendall's county stamp at $0.25 per $500, both as seller costs, so about $400 and $200. Then check the town. Oswego charges its own $3.00 per $1,000 stamp, about $1,200 at this price, but the same list puts that one on the buyer. Yorkville has no city stamp. Both want the final water bill paid before closing.
That's about $25,000 gone before your mortgage payoff or any repairs. Taxes keep running, too, while the house sits on the market, and in May the median Kendall home took 53 days just to sell. If the property is a fit, a cash buyer may make an offer, and you pick the closing date. Listing is a perfectly reasonable choice as well. Run both numbers before you decide.
Kendall County town and neighbor guides
The notes below come from each county's page and a title company's stamp list.
- Oswego: village transfer stamp of $3.00 per $1,000 of price
- Yorkville: the county seat, with no city transfer stamp required
- DeKalb County: shares the 23rd Judicial Circuit with Kendall
- Kane County: $8,000 homestead as a Cook border county, and a $0.25 county stamp
- Will County: mandatory mediation for residential foreclosure cases
- Grundy County: holds part of Minooka; mandatory foreclosure mediation since 2014
Sources: Kendall County Treasurer, tax bill information; Kendall County Treasurer, important tax due dates; 35 ILCS 200/21-350; 35 ILCS 200/15-175; Illinois Courts, 2023 Annual Report Statistical Summary; Kendall County Circuit Clerk, chancery and foreclosures; 735 ILCS 5/15-1603; Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 Kendall County housing profile; Census Reporter, Kendall County median year built by township and place; Redfin Data Center; Clever, average commission survey; Saturn Title, transfer stamp list
