Taxes, PMI & Homeowners' Insurance (Houston: sales, real estate, home owners insurance)

[AESS86]

Question for you all:

My husband and I are looking to buy our first home. We are planning to go with a FHA loan and put down 3.5%.

We are currently trying to determine what the Harris County property tax rate is, how PMI is determined, and what the monthly premium for homeowner's insurance would be, so that we can determine exactly how much house we can afford.

Anyone know anything about these things?

[ilikepizza]

To find the tax rate you can go into HAR.com : Houston Real estate, Houston homes, Houston Realtors, TX Homes and look at the neighborhoods you are interested in. Click on a home and then tax info. It will display the tax rate.

Every home is different for homeowners insurance. You will have to call around and get different quotes from a variety of companies once you find a home you like.

PMI will just depend on how much you pay for your home.

You also might have to budget for flood insurance. If you don't need it, it will be cheap. Its a good idea to get it if you aren't required.

[testmo]

ive heard somewhere that the average home owners insurance cost in houston is 1300-1500 per yr. the less house you buy and some other variables the cheaper it is. i am in a flood plan and just looked at my paperwork. i pay 1070 per yr for flood coverage. since i live in a floodplain carrying flood insurance is mandatory. to escrow your insurance/taxes you pay every month for that. you can opt out and handle your own finances and pocket the savings

if you are able to put 20% down you don't need to pay additional PMI. PMI is just giving money away to the bank

the past homeowner was paying about $3500 per yr in property taxes and I was able to drop that by a bit. you can verify the current tax rates of property on HCAD's website (Harris county appraisal district)

[City Love]

Originally Posted by ilikepizza

To find the tax rate you can go into HAR.com : Houston Real estate, Houston homes, Houston Realtors, TX Homes and look at the neighborhoods you are interested in. Click on a home and then tax info. It will display the tax rate.

Every home is different for homeowners insurance. You will have to call around and get different quotes from a variety of companies once you find a home you like.

PMI will just depend on how much you pay for your home.

You also might have to budget for flood insurance. If you don't need it, it will be cheap. Its a good idea to get it if you aren't required.

This is the best info. The information will all vary.

A very rough estimate of all these costs is to budget 1% of the sales price as your monthly payment for the note, insurance, and taxes. Very rough guide.

[Beto]

That is correct as City Love stated. 1% of your purchase price with the way intrest rates are at the moment. I would get in contact with a loan officer to see what you might be approved for.

[houstonfan]

Don't mean to offend anyone, but I cringe whenever I hear people planning to buy with 3% down. Unless you have a large wad of cash sitting around and not maxing out your loan limits, or unless your family would otherwise spend more on rent, then it's a scary disposition. U have to factor in the constant repair and upkeep of a house and high utility costs too. Also, if you look at hcad.org for taxes, rememeber that some of it will change when you buy the house -ie, if the house is brand new and has only been taxed for the land in previous year, if there was a senior cap, etc.
Work with good and honest realtor.

[cheryjohns]

If your credit is great - you can still get an 80/15/5 - with that 5 being 5% down. No PMI. With FHA, you are stuck with their version of PMI (MIP) for a few years, even if you get it down to 80%.

Call your lender and get a Good Faith Estimate (GFE). Realize that they all are very optimistic when it comes to insurance - so double that on the GFE. A rough equation is: # of thousands financed X $5.30 PLUS 1/12 of annual taxes Plus insurance monthly (call to get a quote from an insurance company). You will get a discount on the home exemption on taxes, but figure in everything without it.

[fordlover]

My wife and I bought our home about 1.5 years ago. Our budget told us we could afford a 2,000 a month mortgage. So we bought a home with a 30 year 1,200 a month mortgage payment (including taxes, PMI, etc.) and pay an extra 600 a month towards principal. We've already been able to drop PMI because we have 20% equity in the house, so that saves us 60 bucks a month. Our current conservative estimates show us paying off the home in 6 years. Just some food for thought. We will save tons of money over paying minimum payments on our 30 year mortgage.