Let’s get our terminology straight. Your “mortgage payment” did not go down due to property value assessments in your area.
Your primary mortgage provider offers you an escrow service into which you voluntarily pay for homeowner’s insurance, property taxes (and possibly PMI if you’re still financing more than 80% of your home’s purchase price).
So, your single check you send each month goes to your lender. It pays:
– principal and interest on your home’s mortgage
– escrow items, including taxes, insurance, etc.
Therefore, to be clear, your mortgage payment has not changed. Your escrow payment has decreased because you’re paying less in property taxes and possibly less for homeowner’s insurance, too.
After 13 years, I doubt you’re upside-down on your mortgage. The easy way to find out is to look up your payoff amount – either on your monthly mortgage statement, or call them – and compare that amount to the selling price of similar homes in your neighborhood. Even then, you’re not really upside-down until you actually try to sell it for less than you owe (not what you originally paid).
—
BTW, You’re under no obligation to use your mortgage lender’s escrow service. You can take responsibility to pay for those items yourself directly. It’s more of a burden on you to ensure you’ve saved up enough to pay them in full on their due dates, but it’s your option. The escrow service is free though and very convenient. You’re only missing out on some small potential interest if you were to place those funds into some interest-bearing financial instrument until you needed them… but that’s not usually worthwhile until you get into housing that’s quite a bit more expensive.