Mortgage Increase Question?

[SoonerTexan]

Help a still newish homeowner out.

I cant figure this out. I just got a letter from our mortgage holder (Wells Fargo) that our monthly rate for our 2nd year of homeownership is going up ~$150 or we have to pay the difference now because they project a shortage in our escrow accounts next year. $150 is a lot for us.

I can directly tie $150 out of the "missing" ~$1000 to a 20% increase in our home insurance premium this year (can I pitchfork someone?).

The rest??? No freaking idea. I have to call the county assessor's office tomorrow and see if our taxes really did go up, but according to the letter they sent me earlier this year and the online history, the projected taxes haven't changed between 2012 and 2013.

So what the hell am I missing? We have a flat rate mortgage and according to the letter nothing on the mortgage is or should be changing. I did notice on the anticipated escrow schedule they included (to show what they we have paid, what they estimate, and where the shortage would be) they didn't include a June payment--it shows $0 to escrow for June. (I checked, we paid it after the letter was mailed, but well before the due date). But surely, SURELY they couldn't be that stupid, right?

[HouseofWool]

Wow, $150 is a lot, mine did go up by $60/mo which I thought sucked, but it was related to insurance and taxes. Blech.

[diggitydot]

That happened our 2nd year of our first house, too. There was a weird tax situation in our county and they fucked up and doubled people's property taxes, which caused our escrow account to have a deficit. They fixed it the next year and our payments then dropped. That house is on a 5/1 ARM and our interest rate just dropped from 5.25% down to 3%, so our monthly payments will drop again, but we haven't been told our new payment yet.

[SuzySunshine]

Ours also fluctuated like that with our residency house, I'm pretty sure we had adjustments like that almost every year.

[peggyfromwastate]

Ditto to the fluctuations.

It's just another joy of homeownership. Ours pretty much fluctuated every year usually due to changes in the home insurance premiums. The tax rate changes were easier to decipher.

The nice thing is the escrow account earns interest, which you have to report on your taxes, but it's interest nonetheless. It's not a lot, but it's something.

[SoonerTexan]

I actually got our insurance premium lowered this morning--they had us down for "fancy" bathrooms. Nope. I still don't get the tax changes though--nothing changed that I can tell. Their own statement shows they predict the same amount of taxes to be collected in 2013 that were for 2012. Our county maxes out at a 10% increase over 5 years and apparently that happened the year we bought it.

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

This happened to us too this year. I was very, very annoyed. And our taxes didn't go up that much either but it was that our "escrow" wasn't right. I was SO angry.

[SoonerTexan]

This happened to us too this year. I was very, very annoyed. And our taxes didn't go up that much either but it was that our "escrow" wasn't right. I was SO angry.

I made them walk me through it. Same thing here. They must have estimated way way off. I wish now I had double checked it at the time, but you'd really think it wouldn't be that hard to do when it is your job on a daily basis. Grrr. I could have them change the tax rate, but since the city doesn't finalize 2013's rates til Sept (we had a bond election), I cant give them the exact amount and would be at risk for fees. Our homestead exemption kicked in this year, so our taxes went down significantly, but we basically have to pay into escrow at last years tax rate until I can get firm numbers. The projected numbers I got from the county appraisal should be pretty dang close, but because of the ISD bond passing, I'm afraid to use them

So essentially we have to pay out the wazoo until March, when they will do another escrow analysis. Then they will give us a large check and our monthly payment will go down to below what we are paying now. Headdesk. Just what I want to do...hemorrhage more money right now. On the bright side, hopefully this worked out the kinks. I think.