November 16 at 9 a.m.: McHenry County's tax sale and the 2027 reassessment
McHenry County bills for tax year 2025 were due in two halves, June 9 and September 9, 2026. The Treasurer charges 1.5 percent interest a month on anything paid late. If a bill is still open this fall, the calendar gets tight. The Treasurer's last day to pay and stay out of the tax sale is Friday, November 13, 2026, with a 5 p.m. cutoff and no postmarks accepted. The sale itself opens Monday, November 16, at 9 a.m. What gets sold is the unpaid tax, not your house. Bidders compete on the penalty rate, the lowest bid wins, and state law caps it at 9 percent. For certificates issued on or after July 10, 2026, a home with one to six units can generally be redeemed for up to three years from the sale. The County Clerk handles redemption amounts at 815-334-4242. Parcels that end up held by the county trustee are sold later through a sealed-bid Trustee Surplus Auction, and the 2026 bids were due September 4.
Your assessed value starts with your township assessor, not the county, and McHenry County has 17 townships. The county reassesses every four years. The last general reassessment was 2023 and the next one is 2027. Under state law, appeals to the Board of Review can only be filed within 30 days of when assessments are published. If you live in the house, the homestead exemption here is up to $8,000 of equalized assessed value, and owners 65 and older can claim up to another $8,000.
Courtroom 202 in Woodstock and the help down the hall
McHenry County is a judicial circuit all by itself, the 22nd. Every foreclosure is filed with the Circuit Clerk under case type FC and heard at the Michael J. Sullivan Judicial Center, 2200 N. Seminary Ave. in Woodstock. Foreclosures go to Courtroom 202, Monday through Thursday, with contested motions set at 9 a.m. The same courtroom takes tax deed cases on Mondays and evictions on Fridays. Illinois allows foreclosure only through a lawsuit, so the state's clocks apply. You have 90 days from service to reinstate by paying what's past due plus costs. Redemption runs until the later of 7 months from service or 3 months from the judgment, and the sale comes after that. A judge then has to confirm the sale, and the buyer can take possession 30 days after that order. If a sale brought in more than you owed, the Circuit Clerk may be holding the surplus, and you claim it by motion (815-334-4310).
Free help is closer than you might think. The Self-Represented Litigant Help Center, a joint effort of the circuit and Prairie State Legal Aid, is in Room 346 of the same building (815-334-0317). Volunteer lawyers from the county bar hold a free help desk on Monday mornings from 9:30 to 11:30 in the second-floor rotunda. The Illinois foreclosure timeline and deadline calculator walk through each date.
Harvard's $175,400 homes and Grafton Township's $361,800
About 317,751 people lived in McHenry County in the Census Bureau's July 2025 estimate, and 82.7 percent of occupied homes are owned by the people living in them. The housing stock is fairly young, with about a quarter of all units built in 2000 or later. Still, roughly 38 percent were built before 1980, and about 9,678 date to 1939 or earlier. A home that old usually hands an inspector a longer list.
Where you are in the county changes the picture a lot. In Grafton Township, around Huntley and Lake in the Hills, the median home is worth $361,800 by the Census estimate. Harvard, in the far north, has a median value of $175,400, less than half that. Your township's figure says more about your house than the county median does. The market moves with the seasons too. Redfin's data shows the median home took 75 days to sell in February 2026 but 44 days in May, when 47.5 percent sold above list.
Running the numbers on McHenry County's $366,000 median
Redfin put McHenry County's median sale price at $366,000 in May 2026, up about 4.6 percent from a year earlier. Commission at about 4.9 percent, Clever's Illinois average (updated September 2026), comes to roughly $17,900. Closing costs of about 1.2 percent add around $4,400. The state transfer tax is 50 cents per $500 and the county adds 25 cents per $500, so about $366 and $183 at that price, and a title company's stamp list shows the seller customarily paying both.
That's about $23,000 off the top before your mortgage payoff or any repairs. Taxes don't pause while you wait, either, and a winter listing may sit much longer than a spring one. Homes did sell for about 100.6 percent of list in May, so listing can make good sense here. If the property is a fit, a cash buyer may make an offer instead, and you choose the closing date. Either path can be the right call. Just compare both before you decide.
McHenry County town guides
The notes below draw on Census Bureau estimates and county records.
- Crystal Lake: median value $311,400
- McHenry: median value $266,500
- Woodstock: county seat and courthouse town, median value $245,700
- Illinois foreclosure timeline: each statewide court deadline from service to confirmation
Sources: Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 housing profile for McHenry County; Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 median home value by township and place; Census Bureau, county population estimates; McHenry County Treasurer, your property taxes; Illinois Property Tax Code (35 ILCS 200); 22nd Judicial Circuit, Courtroom 202 standing order; McHenry County Circuit Clerk, mortgage foreclosure; McHenry County Circuit Clerk, legal self-help; Illinois Code of Civil Procedure, mortgage foreclosure article (735 ILCS 5); Redfin Data Center; Clever commission survey; Saturn Title, transfer stamp list
