Woman Shocked After Mortgage Payment Goes Up by $450 a Month

A surprise bill can be stressful, especially when it’s big enough to fall outside your budget. One woman on Threads says that she recently got a shock when her mortgage statement came, and the amount she owed was significantly higher than she expected.

“Why is my mortgage going up $450,” Threads user @neverland.lillies wrote. “It’s now $2,000 a month. I cannot survive this economy. (Yes, I just found out a letter was sent; my husband forgot to tell me about it … he has a lot going on). Either way, why?”

More than 100 people responded to the post, and some of the responses included insight into why her bill may be going up. Unfortunately, it seems like there are a lot of different reasons why she may be seeing the increase. 

“This makes me want to throw up,” she responded at one point. “But thank you for all of this information!”

Different Factors Can Make Your Mortgage Payment Increase

 

 

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According to various Threads users, there are several different things that influence your monthly mortgage payment that are outside your actual interest rate for those with fixed-rate mortgages. One thoughtful commenter even created a handy list of possibilities. 

“If you have a fixed-rate mortgage, the principal-and-interest portion normally stays the same, but your total monthly payment can change because of escrow or other servicing adjustments,” they wrote. Some of the reasons listed included property tax increases. “Your county may have increased the assessed value, tax rate, or both,” they explained. “Your mortgage servicer then increases the amount collected each month for escrow.”

Another reason involved the homeowners’ insurance premium. “Insurance premiums have risen substantially in many areas,” the post continued. “If your annual premium goes from, say, $1,500 to $2,100, your mortgage company needs to collect an additional $50 a month just to cover the new premium.”

Some People Offered Suggestions to Make the Payment Go Down

The post wasn’t all bad news for the homeowner, though, and several people had suggestions for how she could lower her mortgage payment. 

“If you’re able to in your state, make sure you file a homestead exemption for your house,” one person wrote. 

Another suggested a price comparison, writing, “Try shopping for insurance.”

Many others said that the homeowner should call her mortgage servicer. The servicer is the company that collects the payments, so someone there should be able to tell the woman why her payments went up. Once she has that information, hopefully she will be better prepared to make changes that will help her cut that extra portion of her bill down.