Peoria County tax bills and the November tax sale
The median Peoria County homeowner pays about $3,552 a year in real estate taxes, against a median home value of $158,500 in Census survey data. That works out to roughly 2.2 percent of value each year. The owner-occupied exemption takes up to $6,000 off your assessment, and you don't have to apply for it. Taxes come in two installments. For the 2025 tax year they were due June 9 and Sept. 9, 2026, and each late installment picks up a 1.5 percent penalty per month.
Unpaid taxes go to the annual tax sale in November. The 2026 sale is set for Nov. 9, delinquent notices were scheduled to go out by certified mail around Oct. 13, and payment has to reach the Treasurer's office by 5 p.m. on Nov. 6 to keep a parcel out. Postmarks don't count. Only the tax debt is sold, not the house. After the sale, penalties, interest and costs are added to what it takes to redeem the taxes through the County Clerk's office, so paying before the sale is far cheaper.
Foreclosure at the courthouse on Main Street
Every Illinois mortgage foreclosure goes through court. Here that's the 10th Judicial Circuit, which runs out of Peoria and also covers Marshall, Putnam, Stark and Tazewell counties. The foreclosure office is at 324 Main Street, Room 215, and the court points homeowners to the statewide foreclosure forms and a Legal Self Help Center. Peoria County opened 285 new foreclosure cases in 2023. The county's mandatory foreclosure mediation program was dissolved effective Dec. 16, 2024, so plan on working with the lender, a housing counselor or a lawyer directly.
State law sets the clock. You can reinstate by catching up on missed payments and costs within 90 days after you're served. Your right to redeem by paying the full amount runs until the later of 7 months from service or 3 months from the judgment, and it ends before the sale. After a sale, the court holds a hearing to confirm it, and the buyer can take possession 30 days after that order. Inside the City of Peoria, a property in foreclosure also has to be registered with the city, and the Peoria page has the details. The Illinois foreclosure timeline and the deadline calculator walk through each step.
From the South Side to Dunlap
Peoria County has 179,645 residents and 84,930 housing units, about 7,175 of them vacant. Owners live in about 67 percent of occupied homes, and the median home was built in 1966. The city of Peoria is the county seat.
Values change sharply within a short drive. Among towns, Census data put Dunlap highest at a median home value of $289,600 and West Peoria lowest at $93,900, with the county as a whole at $158,500. The city of Peoria runs a Housing Court for code cases on run-down houses, which matters if you're selling one with open violations.
What a $180,000 Peoria County sale leaves you
Redfin's county data put the Peoria County median sale price at $180,000 in May 2026, on 239 sales. Treat that as one strong month: January through April stayed between $145,000 and $152,000. Here's a rough look at what comes out of $180,000 on a traditional listing:
- Agent commission at about 4.9 percent (Clever's Illinois average, updated September 2026): roughly $8,800
- Closing costs at about 1.2 percent: roughly $2,200
- State transfer tax at $0.50 per $500: about $180
- Peoria County transfer tax at $0.25 per $500: about $90
- City of Peoria transfer tax, paid by the seller, at $2.50 per $1,000: about $450 if the house is in the city
That's roughly $11,300 outside the city and about $11,700 inside it, before your mortgage payoff, repairs or holding costs. Homes that sold in May spent a median of 18 days on the market and sold for about 99 percent of list price. 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, especially for a move-in-ready house. If a deadline is pushing you, the pages on selling before a foreclosure sale and selling an inherited house lay out the options.
Peoria County pages and neighboring counties
Here's where to find the local page for Peoria and the nearby counties in the Peoria area.
- Peoria: county seat, with a city transfer tax the seller pays
- Tazewell County: shares the 10th Judicial Circuit courts based in Peoria
- Woodford County: across the Illinois River to the east, part of the Peoria metro area
- Marshall County and Stark County: smaller 10th Circuit counties whose foreclosures are handled from Peoria
- All Illinois pages: the statewide directory of county and city pages
Sources: Census Reporter, Peoria County profile; Census Reporter, Peoria County places median home value; Peoria County General Tax Information; Peoria County tax sale FAQ; 10th Circuit, Mortgage Foreclosure; 10th Circuit Administrative Orders, AO 2024-11; Illinois Courts 2023 statistical summary; Illinois Code of Civil Procedure, Article XV foreclosure; City of Peoria Code Sec. 27-227; Clever, Illinois transfer taxes; Redfin Data Center; Clever commission survey
