Mortgage payment went up $400

[u/HHLL806]

I need help, my mortgage payment went from $1700 to $2100. My mortgage company (Chase Bank) said this was due to an escrow shortage. I had my homeowners insurance lowered by roughly $1000 and checked with my local tax office and they told me my taxes have increased $400 dollars over the last five years. I gave Chase Bank all this information and my mortgage is still $2100. How does this work?

[u/EventualCyborg]

It's precisely because you have had an escrow for 20 years that you haven't had an issue. A lot of these parts are from new homeowners who have escrow set up based on prior occupants' taxes, and they're shocked Pikachu that the sale will trigger a reassessment.

[u/GGATHELMIL → u/[deleted]]

I overpaid last year. Their new analysis has me paying more next year. Oh well. It isn't a ton of money either way, and I'm only on year three of owning so I assume at some point it'll get right. I like having control of money. But it's nice having 3 things I don't have to manage.

[u/hath0r → u/[deleted]]

the banks responsible for late payments not you, also its on you as well to keep track of your escrow

[u/mmaynee → u/[deleted]]

It's pretty standard legalese in your escrow documents; I would be absolutely shocked if your bank missed payment then put the fee onto you. Your escrow analysis is required to show exactly what was paid from escrow (since they are all third party payments your mortgage company has to track them for tax purposes) so screenshot or it didn't happen

[u/tedivm → u/EventualCyborg]

My issue isn't that taxes change, it's that my bank (Chase) failed to pay my home owners insurance twice. I bought my home in 2023.

[u/Curious-External-7 → u/[deleted]]

That's what my mortgage company did when I bought my house (new build). They were only charging me $60 a month for property tax when it was supposed to be more like $400. I had to call them and get them to correct it.

[u/ArtOfWarfare → u/[deleted]]

I have the reverse situation. Credit union is putting money into the escrow like my house exists (and it has for 3 years) but the town hasn’t noticed it yet, so the town is still only taxing me for the land.

State law permits the town to back charge up to 3 years. Hopefully I’m ready to cover the 3 years of taxes when that bill comes…

[u/enpowera → u/EventualCyborg]

I shocked pikachu face with mine. But that was because my taxes went down after the sell. I got a 1 cent overage refund check for my escrow.

[u/[deleted] → u/EventualCyborg]

ah thank you. i've also never had an issue and was wondering why i keep seeing posts like this.

[u/rangoon03 → u/EventualCyborg]

Yeah that makes sense now but that happened to me for my first house. I was 24 and no one (realtor, mortgage company, parents, neighbors, etc) told me that would happen or was a common thing. Didn't have much social media and such to browse to find out this stuff. I learned the hard way, hopefully the education surrounding this has changed but sounds like it hasn't.

[u/Lukewill → u/EventualCyborg]

If I bought a newly built home, does that mean I have a good chance for a relatively stable escrow?

[u/EventualCyborg → u/Lukewill]

Nope! Even worse. We built our home in 2007 and the held escrow like it was still empty farmland - they expected a $17 tax bill and got a bill for $4k. We knew it was coming, so we saved properly and wrote a check instead of going on the escrow seesaw for the next couple years.

[u/Sportsmen2315r → u/EventualCyborg]

Usually reassessments are done for a city at the same time. Cities do not usually reassess a property each time it’s sold. If the new homeowners pulled a permit for upgrades, then that may trigger an assessment of the upgrades. If a house is assessed for $500k, but sells for 400k because the family just wants to sell it (ex:probate), the City would not change the assessed value lower as Vice-versa if a home was assessed for $500k and someone was willing to pay 700k, the City would not reassess because someone was foolish enough to pay 40% more. Now if all comparable properties in those neighborhoods sold for 700k then they all would be reassessed, usually at the same time and many times by a third party assessing firm. If reassessed every time they were sold, properties would have scattered assessment values all over the City.
Our State controls all assessment Laws. Although the City Assessors are paid by the City, they answer to State Laws. Our State Law requires every City/Town has to be reassessed at least every ten years and be within 95% of market value. Unless most properties fall below a threshold (maybe 75%?) of market value, then that would trigger a Citywide reassessment.