This is why I don't escrow. Too much of a pain.

Mine has been going up slightly every year for the past 3 years. We live in PG County. Hate seeing the shortage letter one year we let it roll over the 12 months and the next we just paid the shortage amount. It sucks nonetheless.

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, not sure why OP is surprised that property taxes will generally go up. Where do you think money for the public schools come from?

Go easy on OP. If you've rented all your life, one thing you always get told to convince you to buy is "rent always goes up but a mortgage stays the same". That first notice from the Mortgage company telling you to shell out an extra sixty bucks a month is always a shocker.

we refinanced around the time of our first escrow adjustment (one year anniversary), but I seem to remember our payment was going to go up about $100/month, but instead went DOWN $100/month with our new slightly lower interest rate.

This year, with the newer mortgage still in place, our payment went up about $40/month.

I worked for one of the local counties at one point and know quite a bit about the tax rate debates. Yes, schools must continue to operate, as well as other county services. I always wanted to laugh at the people who called in screaming about their tax rate (which in the time I was there, actually went DOWN as property values soared) - I could bet money they had a really nice new car in the driveway of their rather pricey home but would scream bloody murder if their neighborhood dog park was ever on the chopping block.

People in this area have no idea how good they have it municipal services-wise.

My mortgage payment actually went down recently due to changes in escrow. I assume it could also go up at some point too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We never have had an escrow. We initially put 20% down, so it wasn't required.

That makes no sense. Either your mortgage company pays your property taxes and homeowner's insurance or it doesn't. It has nothing to do with how much you put down.

I am not sure how it works under the new mortgage rules, but it seems possible that a bank would waive escrow for lenders who seemed very credit worthy, as indicated by a large down payment.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We never have had an escrow. We initially put 20% down, so it wasn't required.

That makes no sense. Either your mortgage company pays your property taxes and homeowner's insurance or it doesn't. It has nothing to do with how much you put down.

Agreed. We just bought with 33% down and we have a required escrow.

Escrow is a good idea for the vast majority of homeowners. I is convenient and ensures your tax and insurance bills get paid.

Anonymous wrote:We never have had an escrow. We initially put 20% down, so it wasn't required.

That makes no sense. Either your mortgage company pays your property taxes and homeowner's insurance or it doesn't. It has nothing to do with how much you put down.

my monthly payment jumped about $200 after the first year, because it was a flip and the new higher property tax assessment kicked in (went from a 125k burnt out shell to a 465k house). i'm not dumb, but it also caught me by surprise -- I just hadn't considered that the increased value wasn't already factored into the property tax that first year. it has also gone up a small amount each year since.

We never have had an escrow. We initially put 20% down, so it wasn't required.

Our escrow was very high the first 1.5 years because we bought in the fall, the initial escrow account did not have over 6 months balance, and property taxes were due Jan. So over less than 1.5 years we had to put enough in the balance to cover two years of taxes. It stabilized to 1/12 of the taxes and insurance after that.

Usually it goes up a small amount, some years it's gone down (they look at your annual high and low escrow balances and adjust for over and underpayment. It's never been a change of more than about $30 though.

Yeah, not sure why OP is surprised that property taxes will generally go up. Where do you think money for the public schools come from?

You'll get an annual escrow adjustment (should) that lays out the adjustments for insurance, taxes, etc.

Ours went up $40 this year for prop. taxes, next yr. will go up more due to increased insurance due to a renovation/addition; year after that should go up more still as county reassesses.

Your escrow will likely change every year, if not by large amounts necessarily.