My wife opened the notice from the mortgage company. Our payment had increased $20 a month over last year and she began to investigate why. There are two reasons your mortgage payment changes from one year to the next:
- Your home insurance premium changed
- Your property taxes changed
We can help with one of those changes. I did what I do for many of our clients when their premium changes. It made sense to move our home and auto insurance to a different carrier which lowered our out of pocket on the home and auto premiums by $300 a year. That is one of the benefits of representing more than one insurance carrier and having options.
Insurance premiums change. They’re not static. There are a number of reasons they change and we’ll examine that in a future blog, but they do change whether or not you’ve filed a claim. This is one of the most frequent questions I’m asked. For some reason, we’re not as surprised at other cost changes. The price of a gallon of gas goes up and down. Food prices fluctuate. Clothing prices change. Insurance does too.
The other reason your mortgage may have changed is due to your property taxes. These also change. Over the past few years, they’ve either remained flat or decreased slightly and given the state of the economy, that was a good thing. They’re beginning to increase now as cities and counties look for revenues to take care of schools, roads and other services.
You may not be able to shop for a lower tax rate like you do with home insurance, but you can contest your tax rate. More on that next week!
