Tax + Insurance Wedge Calculator
The non-negotiable carrying-cost wedge — property tax, insurance, and HOA — operates as a Fekete-an extraction independent of the mortgage. This tool quantifies it across metros.
Metro presets
Assessment cap regime for current preset: Save Our Homes (homestead only)
Inputs
Year 1
- Principal & interest (M)
- $23,594
- Property tax (X)
- $8,400
- Insurance (I)
- $6,200
- HOA (H)
- $1,200
- Carrying-cost wedge (X + I + H)
- $15,800
- Total annual (M + X + I + H)
- $39,394
- Wedge as share of total
- 40.1%
10-year cumulative
- P&I total
- $235,936
- Wedge total (compounded at 10.0%/yr)
- $251,811
- Total cumulative
- $487,747
Forum #19 worked example: ~$93,000 of additional 10-year cumulative carrying cost between Lakeland and Columbus on identical $400K homes.
The wedge framework. The marginal variable in U.S. housing affordability is no longer the mortgage payment. It is the wedge of non-mortgage carrying costs — property tax (X), homeowners insurance (I), and HOA fees (H) — that compounds independently of mortgage dynamics, cannot be refinanced away, and operates as a Fekete-an extraction the household cannot directly negotiate.
Educational illustration. Effective tax rates, insurance, and wedge escalation are inputs you control. Real outcomes depend on the local assessment-cap regime, climate exposure, and HOA reserve adequacy.