Escrow payment increased $142.10!

[disneysteve]

I just got our annual loan statement. Thanks to our ever increasing taxes, the escrow portion of our mortgage payment is going up by $142.10/month. That's $1,705.20/year. That's a lot of money. We are fortunate in that we can tighten the belt a little and won't feel too much of a bite from that, but I'm sure there are plenty of folks around here, particularly the seniors, for whom an increase like that is much more of a problem.

[jIM_Ohio]

so the seniors should move to a place where property taxes are not a huge issue (low taxes).

[disneysteve]

so the seniors should move to a place where property taxes are not a huge issue (low taxes).

Easy to say. Not so easy to do. I'm sure my mother wouldn't want to move hundreds of miles away from her only grandchild or all of her friends and most of her family. She wouldn't want to start a brand new life in a strange place at the age of 77. I can't imagine anyone would.

I certainly don't have a solution, but moving can't be the only solution to rising taxes. If everyone just moved to a lower cost area, guess what would happen. The infrastructure in that area - roads, schools, utilities, shopping, municipal services - would all have to be expanded to accomodate the influx of people and before you know it, the taxes would rise there as well.

[jIM_Ohio]

raising taxes is a great way to get rid of rif raf. I am not talking about a 100 mile move. I could move 2 miles and drop my taxes by around $3000-$4000. We pay $5250/year and our schools lick rocks. The town over has not good schools either with lower taxes.

But I prefer being around a higher class of people (educated people) as opposed to midwest rednecks. Shallow, sure.

There are seniors in my town which make some complaints... and I tell them no one is forcing you to live in this town. One town over has some nice secluded neighborhoods, lower taxes and rednecks.

take the good with the bad

[safari]

That's a huge increase. In California there is a law, which caps the assessed value increase at 7.5% a year. My townhouse is currently assessed at around $400K for the tax purposes, but the market price is over $700K. The assessed value has been increasing by 7.5% every year, which only results in $300-400 increase in taxes.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

My area also NE, just lets seniors not pay taxes until they die and then collects on the house. Or if they move they collect the back taxes without interest or penalties. It's because they know taxes are high.

[Ima saver]

Our taxes were very low when we moved to the mountains of N. ga, Now every one has moved here and taxes are much higher because the price of land has grown to 10 times as much as it was. We still have it cheaper than many of you do, but my taxes did double last year.

[SnoopyCool]

Our will be going down because FL just raised their homestead tax deduction from $25,000 off the taxable value of your house to a $50,000. Good for the pocket book, but we are going to pay in other ways (fire department $ cuts, police department, etc - this according to the mayor of our city). We'll see how it works out.

Jim - I used to work in Milford. Wasn't everyone there a redneck? j/k

[moneybags]

I certainly don't have a solution

There are many programs in place in different areas to help seniors out. Some freeze their tax rate, defer taxes, or discount the taxes. Since they don't affect me at the moment, I'm not sure how valuable the programs in my area are, but they do exist.

I eliminated escrow so that I don't have to look at my mortgage payment increase or pay in a big chunk of escrow due to their miscalculations, plus I like to earn interest on my money. My taxes still increase, but it doesn't seem as painful.

[kv968]

I just got our annual loan statement. Thanks to our ever increasing taxes, the escrow portion of our mortgage payment is going up by $142.10/month. That's $1,705.20/year.

This is Gov. Corzine's idea of property tax relief? Don't worry Steve, maybe your "tax rebate check" will be a little bigger next year

[boefixepa]

This is always an issue when home values are on the rise. It's frustrating! I like some other poster mentioned, took control of my own escrow, so I ever have to worry about the mortage payment going up and I keep a little extra in there. It also makes me considerably more aware of how much my taxes are, how much they go up when they do and the like.

If things are tight, escrow jumps can be a big deal and yours jumped alot IMHO. I know I'd grumble and complaine, but I would be okay. I don't know what some others would do. It's always a hard balance to reach, and seniors really should have some options.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Yeah steve I was wondering why do you have your taxes escrowed? I hate that lack of control.

[disneysteve]

Yeah steve I was wondering why do you have your taxes escrowed? I hate that lack of control.

Good question. I guess we had to when we first bought the house and never changed it. I'll have to call the mortgage company and find out what I need to do to switch to me paying the bills. At least I'd be getting interest on the money.

[disneysteve]

There are many programs in place in different areas to help seniors out.

I didn't mean to just single out the seniors. What about all the non-senior working people who just can't pull an extra $1,700/year out of their back pockets?

[Like2Plan]

I didn't mean to just single out the seniors. What about all the non-senior working people who just can't pull an extra $1,700/year out of their back pockets?

disneysteve,
Was the entire $1,700/year amount just tax increases for 1 year? Sometimes the escrow increases represent shortages from the previous year, increases in homeowners insurance, increases to meet new escrow minimums and of course property tax increases.

I hope your bank will let you manage your own escrow. As you pointed out, if you manage it yourself, you get interest on your funds in saving and you get to decide your saving schedule in order to make the payments.