Modesto, CA Garage & Yard Sales: Frequency, Duration & Permits (2026)

206 treats garage sales as a permitted accessory use in the city's residential zones, so a resident does not need a special event permit to hold one, but the section attaches two hard numeric limits. First, no garage sale on a given property may run for more than three consecutive days; a fourth day, even if it is a continuation of the same sale, puts the resident outside the ordinance. Second, the same premises cannot host more than two garage sales in any calendar year, so households that clear out a garage twice already in January and June cannot legally hold a third sale in the fall no matter how short it is.

The section applies per premises rather than per household member, so co-tenants and multi-family lots sharing an address share the same two-sale annual allotment. The ordinance does not set hours of operation, require advance notice to the City, or limit the number of participating households at a multi-family sale; it regulates only duration and annual frequency. 01 of the Municipal Code, the general penalty provision, and expressly makes a violation of the garage-sale limits punishable as an infraction rather than a misdemeanor, which caps the exposure at fines rather than jail time.

The Community and Economic Development Department, which administers Title 10 zoning enforcement, is the practical point of contact for a complaint about an overlong or overly frequent sale, since it is the department that interprets and enforces the zoning chapter containing this section.