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Why your 'fixed' mortgage payment keeps going up

Cnbc · · 645 words · By Sarah Agostino
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What to know about Why your 'fixed' mortgage payment keeps going up

As many homebuyers discover, getting a fixed-rate mortgage doesn't necessarily mean your monthly payment will remain the same.

Claims checked 10
Techniques found 0
Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage
Left0%
Center75%
Right25%

4 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

As many homebuyers discover, getting a fixed-rate mortgage doesn't necessarily mean your monthly payment will remain the same.

Why it matters

For many homeowners, in addition to principal and interest payments each month, their mortgage payment includes amounts that go into an escrow account.

Common ground

That account then pays out homeowners insurance premiums and property taxes, as well as mortgage insurance if the borrower is required to carry it.

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/17/mortgage-escrow-shortages.html

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 10 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

check_circle Corroborated 4
info Single Source 3
help Insufficient Evidence 2
verified Verified By Reference 1
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Claim 1: “The U.S. average yearly amount paid by homeowners was $3,018 in 2024, up 27.4% from 2019, according to Cotality”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was found in the search results to support or refute this specific claim regarding property tax amounts in 2024.
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Claim 2: “they have increased by roughly 45% since 2019, according to Cotality”
CORROBORATED
Two independent sources (a news report on affordability and Broker Agent Payscale) explicitly state that Cotality's analysis found escrow costs have risen 45% nationally over the past five years.
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web search NEUTRAL — Escrow Costs Up 45% Nationwide. Cotality’s 2025 analysis found that average escrow payments, which cover property taxes and insurance, have risen 45% nationally over the past five years, with some Mid…
https://nowbam.com/affordability-hits-best-level-in-2-5-year…
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web search NEUTRAL — Escalating escrow costs are reshaping homeownership across the U.S., undermining the predictability once promised by fixed mortgage payments. |
https://www.cotality.com/insights/articles/escrow-costs-risi…
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web search NEUTRAL — The surge in escrow costs is not unique to Hawaii. Across the United States, homeowners are paying an average of 45% more in escrow expenses than they did five years ago, according to Cotality.
https://brokeragentpayscale.com/significant-rise-in-escrow-c…
info
Claim 3: “The estimated average shortage is $2,157.”
SINGLE SOURCE
Search results discuss escrow shortages generally, but none provide the specific figure of $2,157 as the average shortage.
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web search NEUTRAL — How to remedy an escrow shortage. If your escrow analysis reveals a shortage, your mortgage lender will show the amount on your analysis statement along with information about your options for resolvi…
https://insurify.com/homeowners-insurance/knowledge/escrow-s…
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web search NEUTRAL — Escrow shortages are one of the most predictable — yet most ignored — cash flow events in rental property ownership. The data backs this up: roughly one in four escrow accounts requires an unplanned a…
https://trenly.com/posts/efficient-escrow-tracking
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web search NEUTRAL — Understanding this table named the Accounts Projections in the escrow disclosure will go a long way in helping you explain what is going on with an escrow account when you are assisting a borrower.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/understanding-escrowed-accoun…
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Claim 4: “The average annual cost of homeowners insurance is projected to reach $3,057 by the end of 2026, up 4% from $2,948 in 2025, according to Insurify.com”
CORROBORATED
Two independent web results from Insurify report that the average annual cost of home insurance rose to $2,948 in 2025 and is projected to reach $3,057 by the end of 2026 (a 4% increase).
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web search NEUTRAL — The average annual cost of home insurance rose 12% in 2025 to $2,948. Insurify projects the average will climb to $3,057 by the end of 2026, a further 4% increase. Since 2021, the average cost of home…
https://insurify.com/homeowners-insurance/report/home-insura…
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web search NEUTRAL — Average home insurance costs rose in 45 states and Washington, D.C., in 2025, while rates remained level or decreased in only five states. Overall, rates rose an average of 12% across the country, pus…
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/insurify-projects-a…
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web search NEUTRAL — “In Florida, Insurify projects the average annual cost of home insurance will reach $15,460 at the end of this year, but rising rates aren’t the only things homeowners have to worry about.
https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/home-insurance-costs-set…
verified
Claim 5: “This year, about 65% of escrow accounts are projected to be short because of recent jumps in those costs, according to Cotality”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
While evidence confirms that Cotality is a real entity (formerly CoreLogic), no provided search results specifically mention the 65% projection for escrow shortages.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — COT, CoT or cot may refer to:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COT
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — COTS may refer to: Commercial off-the-shelf, products that are commercially available and can be bought "as is" Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, a NASA program for delivery to the Internat…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COTS
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Cotality (CoreLogic Inc., doing business as Cotality) is an Irvine, CA-based information services provider of financial, property, and consumer information, analytics, and business intelligence. The c…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotality
+ 3 more evidence sources
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Claim 6: “About 80% of mortgage borrowers have an escrow account, according to Lereta”
CORROBORATED
Multiple independent sources (a survey report and The MortgagePoint) explicitly state that approximately 80% of mortgage holders have an escrow account, attributing the data to Lereta.
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web search NEUTRAL — Mortgage escrow accounts are used to pay homeowners’ property taxes and related insurance premiums (homeowners, flood and mortgage insurance.)Nationally, approximately 80% of mortgage holders have an …
https://lereta.com/news/new-survey-finds-significant-lack-of…
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web search NEUTRAL — Although 80% of mortgage holders have escrow accounts, only 60% fully understand them, up from 52% in early 2024. And those who don’t understand are paying dearly. That finding comes from a survey rel…
https://www.housingwire.com/articles/homeowners-dont-underst…
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web search NEUTRAL — According to LERETA, mortgage escrow accounts are used to pay homeowners’ property taxes and related insurance premiums (homeowners, flood and mortgage insurance.)
https://themortgagepoint.com/2024/02/16/whats-a-mortgage-esc…
info
Claim 7: “homeowners in Florida and Colorado have seen jumps of 70% and 77%, respectively”
SINGLE SOURCE
The provided evidence discusses Florida and Colorado insurance/costs generally, but does not contain the specific percentage jumps of 70% and 77% mentioned in the claim.
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web search NEUTRAL — The homeowners losing their homes in 2026 often have low, fixed mortgage rates locked in during the pandemic. The culprit isn't their loan. It's everything that comes with it.
https://www.mortgageresearch.com/articles/foreclosures-are-r…
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web search NEUTRAL — While Florida recorded a nominal increase in homeowner insurance rates in the past year, S&P analysts warned that the full brunt and impact of hurricanes that hit the Sunshine State in 2024 have yet t…
https://floridapolitics.com/archives/718820-sp-study-shows-f…
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web search NEUTRAL — • U.S. homeowners can expect costs associated with owning and caring for a home to total almost $9,400 a year, according to an analysis by Zillow and Thumbtack. That’s about $780 a month on top of a m…
https://www.zillow.com/research/homeowner-costs-21054/
info
Claim 8: “Cumulative inflation from May 2019 to April 2025 was about 30%, based on the consumer price index.”
SINGLE SOURCE
Search results provide tools to calculate inflation (CPI), but no specific result confirms the cumulative inflation figure of 30% for the period of May 2019 to April 2025.
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web search NEUTRAL — This inflation calculator uses the consumer price index (CPI), which measures the average change in prices over time using a periodically updated market basket of goods and services.
https://www.minneapolisfed.org/about-us/monetary-policy/infl…
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web search NEUTRAL — Free inflation calculator that runs on U.S. CPI data or a custom inflation rate. Also, find the historical U.S. inflation data and learn more about inflation.
https://www.calculator.net/inflation-calculator.html
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web search NEUTRAL — Inflation vs. Consumer Price Index (CPI), How They Are Different. Core Inflation Rates.Annual rates of inflation are calculated using 12-month selections of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) which is pub…
https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-infl…
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Claim 9: “During that time, home prices jumped 51.6%, the Cotality data shows”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was found in the search results to support or refute the claim that home prices jumped 51.6% according to Cotality.
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Claim 10: “the average cost of homeowners insurance has risen by 46% since 2021, the report shows”
CORROBORATED
The Insurify report explicitly states that since 2021, the average cost of home insurance has risen 46%.
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web search NEUTRAL — The average homeowners insurance costs range between $1,872 and $4,802 per year depending on the amount of dwelling insurance, according to Forbes Advisor’s analysis. The average cost of home insuranc…
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/homeowners-insurance/average-…
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web search NEUTRAL — The average homeowners insurance premium rose by 11.2 percent in 2022 from 2021, according to a May 2025 study by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, the latest data available.About o…
https://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/facts-statistics-homeowne…
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web search NEUTRAL — How much have home insurance rates increased? Nationally, the average cost of home insurance has increased 9 percent since 2023, with premiums now costing $209 per year more than they did two years ag…
https://www.bankrate.com/insurance/homeowners-insurance/the-…
info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.