More NYC Property Owners Avoided Tax Lien Sale Following Reforms

New York City officials were able to help more property owners avoid last year’s lien sale for resolving tax and water debts compared to prior years, according to a new report by the Independent Budget Office, a nonpartisan research group.

Of the nearly 30,000 properties that were eligible for 2025’s lien sale, only 15% ultimately ended up in the final sale, the IBO found. That’s lower than any of the past 10 years reviewed by the IBO, in which an average of 17% of eligible properties had their liens sold.

The decline shows the Department of Finance was ...