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Your mortgage payment has a principal and interest component (P&I) and usually an escrow component for Taxes and Insurance (T&I). The tax part of the escrow component is usually based on the prior year's tax bill. But if your are buying a new home, this can be problematic. If you purchase a property from a builder and the property was only land value the previous year or even on January 1 of the year you purchase it, the prior year's tax bill will severely understate the taxes due for the next year.

There is no way to avoid this. The answer is to be aware of this. This will prevent the homeowner from stretching their budget by planning on a mortgage payment that is calculated using a tax bill reflecting land value only. When the loan service provider recalculates the escrow account at the end of the year, they will increase the upcoming year's mortgage payment to not only make up the difference in the low tax amount from the prior year, but also add an amount to make up the shortage in the escrow account. It's a "double whammy". The only thing a homeowner can do is prepare financially for this and discuss it with the loan servicer ahead of time.