Macon County tax bills, the fall tax sale and rotating reassessments
Macon County mails property tax bills in May. The first installment is due 30 days after mailing and the second on September 1, or the next working day if that lands on a weekend or Labor Day. Taxes are billed a year in arrears, so each bill covers the year before. Pay late and the county adds a penalty of 1.5 percent per month or part of a month. After the second installment, a $10 delinquency-notice cost goes on, and the delinquent list is printed in a county newspaper.
In the county's largest tax code, the City of Decatur with Decatur Public Schools 61, the 2025 total rate is 9.33238 per $100 of taxable value. Homes are meant to be assessed at 33.33 percent of value, and the county's own formula is taxable value minus exemptions, times the rate, divided by 100. For a Decatur home worth about $99,600 with the $6,000 general homestead exemption, that works out to roughly $2,500 a year. For counties Macon's size, state law says the county must apply to sell unpaid taxes within 90 days after the second installment, or about three months after September 1. At the Treasurer's annual tax sale, the unpaid taxes are sold, not the house. Bidding starts at 9 percent interest and goes down, and the county says owner-occupied homes usually get 30 to 36 months to redeem through the County Clerk.
Macon splits its townships into four districts that take turns, so part of the county is reassessed every year. Call the Supervisor of Assessments at 217-424-1364 to learn your township's year. For 2025, Decatur Township values were raised by a 1.0727 equalization factor.
Macon County foreclosures after the mediation program stopped
Every Illinois mortgage foreclosure goes through court. Macon County is in the Sixth Judicial Circuit with Champaign, Douglas, Moultrie, DeWitt and Piatt counties, and local cases go to the Macon County Circuit Court in Decatur. The Circuit Clerk's undated fee page lists $426 to file a foreclosure case and $201 to file an answer.
The big local change came with Administrative Order 2026-1. It suspended the county's mandatory residential foreclosure mediation program indefinitely on February 20, 2026, ended every pending mediation case, and stopped the $100 extra filing fee, so the listed $426 may now run lower. The state clock still applies. You can reinstate by paying the missed amounts and costs within 90 days after you're served. Your right to redeem runs until the later of 7 months from service or 3 months from the judgment, and it ends before the sale. After the sale, the court holds a hearing to confirm it, and the buyer can take possession 30 days after that order. The Illinois foreclosure timeline and the deadline calculator walk through each step.
There is some local help with the tax bill. If you're 65 or older, have owned and lived in the home at least 3 years, and your household income is $77,000 or less for tax year 2026, the Treasurer's senior deferral program can hold off up to $7,500 a year in taxes. Applications are due March 1.
Decatur, Mount Zion, Forsyth and the smaller towns
The whole county makes up the Decatur metro area, with Decatur as the county seat. Prices split sharply by place. Census survey data puts the median owner home value at $99,600 in Decatur and $127,300 countywide, against $201,100 in Mount Zion and $281,000 in Forsyth, nearly three times Decatur's figure. The smaller towns sit in between, at $108,600 in Macon, $126,800 in Maroa and $145,400 in Warrensburg.
What a $159,950 Macon County sale leaves you
Illinois REALTORS put the Decatur metro median sale price at $159,950 in July 2026, up 11.9 percent from $143,000 a year earlier. Here's a rough look at what comes out of that on a traditional listing:
- Agent commission at about 4.9 percent (Clever's Illinois average, updated September 2026): roughly $7,800
- Closing costs at about 1.2 percent: roughly $1,900
- State transfer tax at $0.50 per $500: about $160
That's roughly $9,900 before your mortgage payoff, repairs or holding costs. State law lets a county add its own transfer stamp, but a Macon County ordinance couldn't be confirmed, so ask your title company whether one applies. If the home sells subject to an existing mortgage, the unpaid balance is left out of the transfer tax math. Two local catches: taxes deferred under the senior program are a lien at 3 percent interest that must be paid before the sale can close, and a mobile home needs its taxes paid to date plus a $10 Treasurer certification for a clear title. If the property is a fit, a cash buyer may make an offer and you pick the closing date. Listing with an agent is also a fine choice. The pages on selling before a foreclosure sale and selling an inherited house cover those situations.
Decatur and the other Sixth Circuit county pages
Here's the city page for Macon County, then two counties that share its court circuit.
- Decatur: county seat, Census median owner home value about $99,600
- Champaign County: shares the Sixth Judicial Circuit with Macon County
- Piatt County: foreclosure cases at the Monticello courthouse, median home value $180,600
- All Illinois pages: the statewide directory of county and city pages
Sources: Macon County Treasurer; Macon County 2025 tax codes; Macon County 2025 assessment publication; Macon County Supervisor of Assessments; Illinois Property Tax Code, 35 ILCS 200; Macon County Circuit Clerk court fees; Macon County Administrative Order 2026-1; Illinois Code of Civil Procedure, 735 ILCS 5; 320 ILCS 30/3, senior tax deferral; Census Reporter, median home value, Macon County and towns (ACS 2020-2024); Illinois REALTORS July 2026 MSA report; Clever commission survey
