Escrow Out of Cycle Analysis

Escrow Out of Cycle Analysis

We are seeing unprecedented increases in insurance rates nationwide, pushing many homeowners to review their policies to ensure they have enough coverage while paying for the most cost-effective policy. So, why are insurance rates rising so significantly, and why should I care?

Insurance rates are on the rise due to several factors:

• Natural disasters – Home insurance companies experienced record claim payouts over the past few years relating to natural disasters. We continue to witness extreme wildfires, hurricanes, and geographically uncharacteristic cold and hot weather bouts that drastically impact insurers nationwide. As a result, insurers must increase coverage premiums to recoup losses and budget for future natural disasters.
• Higher construction costs – We saw the impact of construction costs and supply shortages beginning in 2020. The ripple effects of these shortages in the supply of labor and materials continue to impact the housing market. This bleeds into increased insurance premiums because insurance companies must pay higher than normal costs to cover insured repairs.
• Insurers exiting the market – You may have seen several familiar insurers exiting the market in certain states or all together over the past few months due to these economic factors impacting the entire industry. Anytime there is reduced supply (fewer insurers in the market), and increased demand (homeowners newly needing coverage), there will be price increases until the market corrects to more closely align supply and demand.
• Consumer-specific reasons – Even your house can’t avoid the inevitability of aging. As your house gets older, failure or degradation resulting in claims related to bigger ticket items like your roof or HVAC system are statistically more likely to occur, resulting in increased premiums. Pools, pets, and trampolines may also put you into a higher-risk category that will result in increased premiums. Additionally, you have an insurance score, a statistical value derived from your credit score, and claims history that indicates how likely you are to file a claim. A lower score predicts that you are more likely to file a claim, meaning higher insurance premiums.

What does this mean for me?

Rising insurance premiums equal increases in escrow to cover the cost. You may see an increase in your monthly payment to escrow as well as a shortage on your next escrow analysis. Escrow accounts are managed on your behalf to assist in budgeting for large expenses, such as annual insurance premiums. A portion of your monthly payment goes into your escrow account and is used to pay your insurance and taxes as they become due. For those who remember learning how to balance checkbooks in high school, your escrow account will ebb and flow with each payment into your account and each disbursement out of your account. Higher insurance premiums result in negative balances across escrow accounts, which ultimately means mortgage payment increases.

Carrington is working diligently to minimize the financial impact of these increases by introducing an out-of-cycle escrow analysis. An out-of-cycle analysis is an escrow analysis conducted outside of the standard annual analysis time frame, in this case, after your insurance disbursement. Performing an out-of-cycle escrow analysis will adjust your monthly payment to account for your premium increase sooner rather than later.

If you receive an out-of-cycle analysis, your insurance premium increased significantly from the prior year. You will see an increase in your monthly payment towards escrow to account for the increased insurance premium. You will also see an escrow shortage, however, since a shortage is to bring the account balance back in line with projected disbursements, by catching the shortage earlier, the shortage amount will be less because your escrow account did not continue to go “unbalanced” for months waiting for your annual cycle. Therefore, running an out-of-cycle analysis will help to keep your monthly mortgage payments more manageable in these unprecedented times.

We are here to help. You can always connect with our customer service team at 800-561-4567. For additional resources related to escrow, click here.