California tax default lists

The notice a California county tax collector must publish listing every parcel whose property taxes were still unpaid at the end of the tax year, with the owner and the amount needed to redeem. It starts the clock: after five years in default -- three for some non-residential property -- the county may sell.

Not from the list. A defaulted parcel can only be bought at the county's tax-defaulted property auction, years later, if it is still unpaid. Most are paid long before. The list is useful for what it says about a county, and about owners under pressure -- not as an inventory.

6 counties whose lists appeared on capublicnotice.com this year, the largest Santa Cruz with 329 parcels. Counties that publish only in print, or on their own site, are not here.