Defiance County

1 signing location

Zone 2 · Northwest

Regional Captain: Barbara Bristley

Want to volunteer in Defiance County? Call or text your Regional Captain — they'll sign you up as a County Captain or circulator.

Businesses & venues

Hubbard Law Firm

Defiance, OH 43512

650 W. First St.

Monday – Friday | 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM

Hosting a signing event in Defiance County?

Submit the details (who, where, when, contact) and we'll add it here and share it on social.

Defiance County at a glance

Population: 38,644
Median home (2024) Median home (2024) The midpoint value of owner-occupied homes — half the county's homes are worth more, half less. Source: the Census Bureau's American Community Survey 5-year estimates (table B25077), which reflect what owners estimate their home is worth, not sale prices. The year shown is the most recent one published.: $163,200
Assessment ratio (2022) Assessment ratio (2022) How close the county auditor's appraised values are to what homes actually sell for. The Ohio Department of Taxation compares the auditor's appraised value to the real sale price on arm's-length sales and publishes a median ratio for each city and township; this figure combines those into one county number, weighted by each area's number of sales. 100% means appraisals matched sale prices. 75% means the typical home was appraised at about three-quarters of what it sold for; above 100% means the typical home was appraised for more than it sold for. It describes the county as a whole — any individual property can be far off it. (Ohio bills tax on 35% of appraised value; that 35% is fixed by statute and is not what this ratio measures.): 70.09%
Median income: $73,615
Parcels Parcels Separately taxed pieces of real property — each parcel has its own number on the auditor's books and its own tax bill. A tax foreclosure case usually covers a single parcel, so this is roughly the pool of properties those filings are drawn from. Figure as published on the committee's original county page.: 27,514
School districts: 5
Last Update Last Update Ohio counties reappraise every property every six years, with a lighter 'update' three years in between (ORC §5713.01). The values set in that year drive tax bills until the next one. Dates come from the Ohio Department of Taxation's published sexennial reappraisal and triennial update schedule.: 2026
Next Reappraisal Next Reappraisal Ohio counties reappraise every property every six years, with a lighter 'update' three years in between (ORC §5713.01). The values set in that year drive tax bills until the next one. Dates come from the Ohio Department of Taxation's published sexennial reappraisal and triennial update schedule.: 2029

Property Tax Lien Foreclosure History

Total filed Lost to sheriff sale

0 0

2015: 0 filed

2015: 0 lost to sale

15 2015

0 0

2016: 0 filed

2016: 0 lost to sale

16 2016

0 0

2017: 0 filed

2017: 0 lost to sale

17 2017

0 0

2018: 0 filed

2018: 0 lost to sale

18 2018

0 0

2019: 0 filed

2019: 0 lost to sale

19 2019

7 7

2020: 7 filed

2020: 1 lost to sale

20 2020

10 10

2021: 10 filed

2021: 3 lost to sale

21 2021

6 6

2022: 6 filed

2022: 4 lost to sale

22 2022

16 16

2023: 16 filed

2023: 6 lost to sale

23 2023

8 8

2024: 8 filed

2024: 1 lost to sale

24 2024

11 11

2025: 11 filed

2025: 3 lost to sale

25 2025

Why are 2019–2021 cases mostly still active? Ohio's COVID-19 emergency orders (beginning March 2020) imposed a foreclosure moratorium that paused most delinquent tax lien proceedings for over a year. Cases filed before and during the freeze accumulated in county courts and many are still working toward a final outcome — either a sheriff sale or a dismissal once the homeowner resolves the debt.

Why does Assessment Ratio have gaps? The Ohio Department of Taxation only publishes this figure for years when Defiance County underwent its sexennial reappraisal or triennial update — not every year in between. A dash means no study was conducted that year, not that the county was accurately assessed.

Metric	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Treasurer Filed Foreclosures Treasurer Filed Foreclosures Tax lien foreclosure cases the county Treasurer filed against properties with unpaid property taxes — usually brought by the county Prosecutor on the Treasurer's behalf. Counted from the county's own court records, year by year; the source is linked below this table.	0	0	0	0	0	7	10	6	16	8	11
3rd Party Investor Filed Foreclosures 3rd Party Investor Filed Foreclosures Foreclosure cases filed by a third-party investor — a private company that bought delinquent tax liens from the county and then went to court to collect on them. Ohio counties may sell tax liens this way under ORC §§5721.30–5721.43, and once sold it is the investor, not the county, that files the case.	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
Lost to Sale Lost to Sale Cases that ended with the property sold at sheriff's sale — the owner lost the home. This can only be determined by reading each case on the court docket, so a dash means we don't have that breakdown for the year yet, not that the number was zero.	0	0	0	0	0	1	3	4	6	1	3
Dismissed Dismissed Cases closed without a sheriff's sale — typically because the owner paid off the delinquent taxes or worked out a payment plan. Also read case by case from the docket.	0	0	0	0	0	3	6	1	8	5	5
Pending Pending Cases filed but not yet resolved by a sheriff's sale, dismissal, or other closure — still working their way through the court system. Where the court publishes a case status we use it directly; otherwise this is that year's filings minus the cases lost to sale and dismissed.	0	0	0	0	0	3	1	1	2	2	3
% Lost % Lost Lost to Sale divided by Treasurer Filed Foreclosures for the same year, rounded to a whole percent. A case filed one year may not sell until a later one, so read this as that year's rate rather than the eventual fate of that year's exact cases.	—	—	—	—	—	14%	30%	67%	38%	13%	27%
Median Home Value Median Home Value The midpoint value of owner-occupied homes — half the county's homes are worth more, half less. Source: the Census Bureau's American Community Survey 5-year estimates (table B25077), which reflect what owners estimate their home is worth, not sale prices. The year shown is the most recent one published.	$108,900	$109,400	$112,700	$117,700	$119,900	$125,100	$131,400	$147,600	$150,900	$163,200	—
% Value Change % Value Change Year-over-year change in the Median Home Value row above, rounded to the nearest whole percent. It is only computed when that year and the one before it both have a value, so it is never carried across a gap in the data.	—	0%	3%	4%	2%	4%	5%	12%	2%	8%	—
Assessment Ratio Assessment Ratio How close the county auditor's appraised values are to what homes actually sell for. The Ohio Department of Taxation compares the auditor's appraised value to the real sale price on arm's-length sales and publishes a median ratio for each city and township; this figure combines those into one county number, weighted by each area's number of sales. 100% means appraisals matched sale prices. 75% means the typical home was appraised at about three-quarters of what it sold for; above 100% means the typical home was appraised for more than it sold for. It describes the county as a whole — any individual property can be far off it. (Ohio bills tax on 35% of appraised value; that 35% is fixed by statute and is not what this ratio measures.)	90.66%	87.82%	90.51%	85.37%	82.94%	86.58%	76.19%	70.09%	—	—	—

What This Data Means

In 2022, 67% of Defiance County families who entered tax lien foreclosure lost their home to a sheriff sale — the highest rate in our 11-year dataset.
Since 2015, 18 Defiance County families have permanently lost their homes to property tax lien foreclosure.

Help stop this from happening to more Ohio families — find a petition signing location near you in Defiance County.

↑ Find a signing location in Defiance County

About this data: Data obtained via a public records request to the Defiance County Clerk of Courts, reflecting delinquent tax foreclosure cases filed by the Defiance County Treasurer. No cases were found for 2015–2019; filings begin in 2020. Median home value for 2025 is not available: the Census Bureau's American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (the source for this row) had not yet published that vintage as of this data's retrieval date. Assessment ratio data is not available for 2023-2025: neither of the Ohio Department of Taxation's sales-ratio studies (SRD04 or the archived PS1&2) covers those year(s) for this county.

Source: Defiance County Clerk of Courts . These are property tax lien foreclosures only — not mortgage foreclosures.

Assessment ratio: Ohio Department of Taxation, SRD04 — Residential Sales Statistics by Political Subdivision (2020–present) and PS1&2 — Sales Ratios of Real Property, By Class of Property and County (2015–2018, archived).

All data is sourced from publicly available government records including individual county court portals, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the Ohio Department of Taxation. AxOHTax makes no warranty as to the accuracy of compiled figures. Users should verify data independently for official purposes.