Re: Buying a house in the USA
 

We were allowed to stay out of escrow because we put down a large downpayment. If we had been in escrow I seem to remember the mortgage company wanted a year of property taxes up front...emm $12,000 to sit in their account, I don't think so. The bank explained this was a 'slush fund' to cover any future increases in property taxes that weren't accounted for in our monthly payment.

So we pay our mortgage to the bank, our insurance to the insurance co, the property tax to the county, our mud tax to the mud district and our HOA fees to the management co, all in December.

There have been a few 'stories' on city-data of mortgage companies underestimating the cost of property taxes and insurance and folk getting bills for thousands at the end of the year. Really people??? you trust the bank to get it right?