Stark County tax bills and the October 28 sale in Toulon
The typical Stark County homeowner pays about $1,768 a year in real estate taxes, roughly 1.7 percent of the $104,500 median home value (Census survey data). Rates run higher inside Toulon than inside Wyoming, so check the tax code on your bill. The 2025 tax is paid in two installments, due June 1 and September 1, 2026, and anything unpaid picks up interest of 1.5 percent a month. Exemptions other than the general homestead, including the senior and senior freeze exemptions, have to be renewed each year with the Assessment Office.
Unpaid 2025 taxes go to the Treasurer's annual tax sale, set for October 28, 2026 at 1:00 pm in the courthouse at 130 W. Main St. in Toulon, with bidder registration closing October 14. The Treasurer notes dates can change, and the sale usually lands in late October or early November. What sells is the tax debt, not the house: the bidder who accepts the lowest penalty rate, capped at 9 percent, pays the taxes. On a typical home you generally have up to 3 years from the sale to redeem. For 2025, assessment notices were mailed and then published October 31, and complaints were due December 1, 2025.
Foreclosure cases in the Tenth Circuit, filed in Toulon
Illinois mortgages can only be foreclosed through the courts. Stark County is part of the Tenth Judicial Circuit with Peoria, Tazewell, Marshall and Putnam counties, and foreclosures are civil cases filed with the Stark County Circuit Clerk in Toulon. The circuit's mandatory foreclosure mediation order is described as applying to Peoria County, and the circuit rules list no mediation program for Stark. The circuit runs a Legal Self-Help Center at 324 Main St., Room 211, in Peoria. If a case reaches a sale, the county sheriff generally holds it at the courthouse.
In a Stark case, the dates that matter start the day the summons from the Toulon circuit clerk reaches you. Illinois gives you 90 days from service to bring the loan current by paying what's past due plus costs. Paying off the whole balance stays open until 7 months after service or 3 months after judgment, whichever comes later, but not past the sheriff's sale at the courthouse. Stark isn't covered by the mediation order the circuit describes for Peoria County, so these statutory dates are the ones to track from the start. A judge still has to confirm the sale, and the buyer can take possession 30 days after that order. Plug your own dates into the deadline calculator, or read the Illinois foreclosure timeline stage by stage.
Older homes in Wyoming, Toulon, Bradford and the farm country between
About 5,308 people live in Stark County, according to Census survey estimates for 2020 to 2024. About 80 percent of occupied homes are lived in by their owners, and the median home was built in 1956, so the housing stock is old. The county has four incorporated towns: Wyoming, Toulon, the county seat, Bradford in the northeast and La Fayette in the west.
Prices run well below the region. Illinois REALTORS put Stark's second-quarter 2026 median sale at $127,500, compared with $176,000 in Peoria County, $170,000 in Henry County, $166,250 in Marshall County and $179,250 in Bureau County. Only Knox County, at $126,000, was about level. The catch is volume: only 8 homes closed in that quarter, and the first-quarter median was $132,000. With so few sales, one house can move the number a lot.
Working the math on a $127,500 Stark sale
Here's a rough look at what comes out of the $127,500 median on a traditional listing:
- Agent commission at about 4.9 percent (Clever's Illinois average, updated September 2026): roughly $6,200
- Closing costs at about 1.2 percent: roughly $1,500
- State transfer tax at $0.50 per $500: about $130
That's roughly $7,900 before your mortgage payoff, repairs or holding costs. State law lets a county add its own transfer tax of $0.25 per $500, about $65 here, but the county's site doesn't say whether Stark charges it, so ask your closing attorney. By custom the seller pays transfer tax, though that's negotiable. If you inherited the house, the inherited house guide covers the Illinois steps.
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. If a foreclosure deadline is pushing you, the page on selling to stop a foreclosure lays out the options.
Stark County and nearby Peoria-area pages
Stark doesn't have its own town pages yet, so here are the neighboring county pages, the Peoria city page and the statewide directory.
- Peoria County: borders Stark to the south, second-quarter median $176,000
- Marshall County: borders Stark to the east, also in the Tenth Circuit
- Henry County: borders Stark to the northwest, second-quarter median $170,000
- Tazewell County: a central Peoria metro county in the same judicial circuit
- Woodford County: foreclosures heard in Eureka, second-quarter median $239,950
- Peoria: home of the circuit's Legal Self-Help Center on Main Street
- All Illinois pages: the statewide directory of county and city pages
Sources: Census Reporter, Stark County profile; Stark County 2025 Tax District Sheet; Stark County Treasurer; Stark County Assessment Office; 35 ILCS 200/21-215; 35 ILCS 200/21-350; 735 ILCS 5/15-1603; Rules of the Circuit Court of the 10th Judicial Circuit; Tenth Judicial Circuit Self-Help Information; Illinois REALTORS Q2 2026 county statistics; Clever commission survey; Clever, Illinois transfer taxes