Escrow payment increased $142.10!

[disneysteve]

Was the entire $1,700/year amount just tax increases for 1 year?

Actually, I'm not certain. I didn't analyze the 6-page statement yet. Good question.

[moneybags]

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

I have a separate savings account that I have direct deposit every time DH gets paid. It is strictly my "escrow" account. I usually overfund it so that I don't have to pull funds from elsewhere when our giant, and I mean giant, tax bill comes due.

[scfr]

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

Good point ... When we had our house, we just paid our taxes (and our association dues) ourselves; taxes every 6 months and association dues once a year. If you do that, you keep your money in the bank earning interest until the payment is due.

Edit - Sorry steve, I just see you already replied about LAL's post. Yes, definitely call the mortgage company about taking over any and all payments other than regular "principal + interest" yourself.

[rennigade]

I would say move or sell your home and rent. Simple as that.

[mom-from-missouri]

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

Then mister, you'd never make it where I live. Us old farmers, in our bibs, driving old pickup trucks and rusty tractors, no library, town populations of 34, 2984, 11...
chickens in our front yards, pigs in the front pasture, going coon hunting, skinny dippin in the creek.....ice cream socials and county 4h fairs for entertainment...
Yep, you'd never make it here.

[LuxLiving]

OMG, I freaked when mine went up $18! ...and pulled us out of the mortgage company's hands as this was simply an 'estimated' adjustment w/no merits in fact.

At $142 I'd faint and fall back in it!

[poundwise]

It is my understanding that escrow accounts are frequently mishandled.

Are there any set guidelines for when you get out of escrow and handle the taxes and insurance yourself or is it up to the mortgage company and your mortgage terms?

[SnoopyCool]

Another good reason to pay your own taxes and insurance...

Clark Howard addressed escrow accounts a few weeks ago, saying that if your bank fails to pay insurance or taxes on time (by oversight or whatever) then YOU are responsible, not the bank. Seems unfair!

[FrugalFish]

Gosh, that is a pretty big increase. I've heard about what those of you in NJ deal with in regard to property taxes and auto insurance. Like someone else mentioned, the new amount probably compensates to repay a shortfall, and pay the new rate. Next year you may see a drop in the escrow amount- this has happened to us a couple of times.

I am in CA where prop 13 limits property value increases to 2% per year (not the 7.5 someone else mentioned earlier). If not for that control, we would not be able to stay in the house- which is why prop 13 was passed in the first place. Someone who bought a house identical to ours today would pay 4 times the property taxes that we do, which is good incentive to stay put (golden prisons as they are called in CA- great profits if you want to sell, but you can't afford the property taxes in a different CA house). I don't know how some people manage to do it.

Fishy

[moneybags]

Are there any set guidelines for when you get out of escrow and handle the taxes and insurance yourself or is it up to the mortgage company and your mortgage terms?

I can't remember exactly, but I think I had to have a certain amount of equity before I could get out of the escrow. So, I think there are terms in the agreement.

[frugalfarmwife]

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

And we just might not want you in our areas either It's when "your type" move into our farming communities and then complain about the noise/smell/dust etc from farming and try to change our zoning that we have problems, oh and yep, your moving out here and wanting more of your "civilization" raises my taxes and annoys me and raises our land prices through the roof so young people can't afford to get into farming at all.

BTW, when you sit down to a meal today take a moment and thank those "Red necked lower class people" that are honest enough to put in a hard days work to feed even those that aren't even thankful for it

KJ