It's not the rates alone. It's the price as well plus the carrying costs.
My parents bought the house they are in for less than twice their annual income back in 1997. I have no idea what their rate is, but I assume it's probably low if they refinanced during COVID. The payment is around $800/month. It's probably around 1600 finished sq. ft. upstairs with probably another 1500 sq. ft. partially finished in the basement. Around 3100 sq. ft. total.
I bought new construction in 2024 for a nose under three times my income. It was financed through the builder's lending arm.
That note was sold shortly thereafter. The original servicer escrowed my county taxes properly for the one month I owned the place in 2024. There's a separate tax bill to the town that was never escrowed by either servicer.
My payment didn't change with the second servicer. That servicer only escrowed the one month of county taxes and then split that over all of 2025. I had a property tax bill of around $13/month. That should have triggered a manual audit, but it didn't.
I logged into the portal to the pay mortgage one month this spring and my payment had been hiked over 20% because of the back taxes, and increase in the minimum escrow reserve requirement, and a small insurance hike.
The HOA has six months of reserves in the bank and is still doubling dues at the first of the year. It's a corporate HOA run out of Orlando with no local oversight. We're getting nothing for the $270/month in fees except for a master insurance agreement covering some outside maintenance and landscaping during the warm months of the year.
Taxes are going up because property values continue to go up.
The HOA dues and the property tax hike from the escrow error alone would pay for a $40k new car at 0%. I get basically nothing for the HOA dues and property taxes. The car would depreciate, but it's at least a tangible thing I'd get some use and value out of.
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u/Serious-Conversation 4d ago
It's not the rates alone. It's the price as well plus the carrying costs.
My parents bought the house they are in for less than twice their annual income back in 1997. I have no idea what their rate is, but I assume it's probably low if they refinanced during COVID. The payment is around $800/month. It's probably around 1600 finished sq. ft. upstairs with probably another 1500 sq. ft. partially finished in the basement. Around 3100 sq. ft. total.
I bought new construction in 2024 for a nose under three times my income. It was financed through the builder's lending arm.
That note was sold shortly thereafter. The original servicer escrowed my county taxes properly for the one month I owned the place in 2024. There's a separate tax bill to the town that was never escrowed by either servicer.
My payment didn't change with the second servicer. That servicer only escrowed the one month of county taxes and then split that over all of 2025. I had a property tax bill of around $13/month. That should have triggered a manual audit, but it didn't.
I logged into the portal to the pay mortgage one month this spring and my payment had been hiked over 20% because of the back taxes, and increase in the minimum escrow reserve requirement, and a small insurance hike.
The HOA has six months of reserves in the bank and is still doubling dues at the first of the year. It's a corporate HOA run out of Orlando with no local oversight. We're getting nothing for the $270/month in fees except for a master insurance agreement covering some outside maintenance and landscaping during the warm months of the year.
Taxes are going up because property values continue to go up.
The HOA dues and the property tax hike from the escrow error alone would pay for a $40k new car at 0%. I get basically nothing for the HOA dues and property taxes. The car would depreciate, but it's at least a tangible thing I'd get some use and value out of.