Oh shit I didn't see that before hahaha

That's not a mortgage though.

And usually home owners insurance since that is usually held in escrow by your mortgage company. This isn’t the meme OP thinks it is

It depends on the area. Both Texas and New Jersey have very high property taxes, so it wouldn't be that surprising. Or it could be expected insurance costs like in Florida, which could be very high.

I've seen condos where the Strata/HOA fee alone would have been around 25% of the monthly mortgage.

$400 / month strata on a $1600 / month condo. It's practically thievery, no idea how maintaining and apartment is supposed to cost $4800 a year per person. Can't remember how many unit but even assuming a low count of 10 units that's $48,000 a year in maintenance. Seems pretty excessive.

Curious where you are getting 25%?

At least this amount will, assuming it's just taxes and insurance, be due every month for as long as it's owned. Property taxes in California for example are around 1%/year (so a $377k home would be around $4k/year).

If you own the home outright you may not need insurance, but of course, that's a risk.

Taxes may be severely limited in how much they increase (see: California prop 13), so while they will likely increase it may not match e.g. rental increases.

If you have a mortgage, 99/100 the bank is going to make you pay into escrow for insurance and taxes.

This is just a simple online mortgage calculator so it’s not factoring in that you could just pay those yourself if you’re paying all cash for the house.

They can be or they can be paid through "escrow" and your mortgage servicer will pay them.

Usually sites like these want to show total monthly cost though, so they tend to include estimates for property taxes and insurance in the monthly payments. Whether it gets paid through your mortgage servicer or directly by you doesn't change much.

It can be paid directly by you, or it can be held "in escrow" and paid by your lender. Ultimately it doesn't make a difference financially, but it does mean logistically you either are paying one bill vs 3+.

It also comes at the risk that your lender fucking up could result in, best case scenario, a paperwork nightmare and maybe a small fee with your insurance/county/whatever, worst case scenario, the cancellation of a policy you may or may not be able to get back into easily.

Online calculators almost always include, or have an option to include, these costs. In part it's because that's the number the bank will use to determine what you qualify for. Makes it much easier to say, "here's your monthly obligation" and compare that to you monthly income, instead of "here's your monthly obligation, and here's your twice-a-year tax obligation."