ºÃÉ«tv

But the county maintained that auction sale prices are always lower than open real estate transactions, in part because they typically require full cash payment rather than a mortgage.

Requiring foreclosure sales to match open-market prices would essentially end them, making it harder to collect unpaid taxes, Isabella County argued.

The case comes about three years after where the justices ruled against local governments. The court found counties can’t keep tax sale proceeds beyond what the owner owes in unpaid taxes.

That case centered on a 94-year-old Minnesota woman whose county government kept about $40,000 in proceeds from the sale of her condominium after she failed to pay about $2,300 in taxes.