Holy crap, you must be on the coast. I’m in the northern prairie and my 3BR2B house property taxes are $210/month and insurance $75/month.
Flyover country has it’s downsides, but also upsides.
True that about flyover country having positives. Our property taxes are $1,200 annually -- $100/month for our 3BR2.5B house on 1.5 acres.
About others posting to pay off mortgage before retiring, I can see someone choosing not to do that if the interest rate is low and that person instead puts that money into Roth IRA's and Roth 401K's. But the trick is to do it with the same intensity as you would if you were instead paying off the mortgage. Just treat that portion of your Roth investments as your mortgage payoff amount.
From then it works two ways: either 1) use that extra investment money to pay the mortgage payment while the investments keep growing tax free (in Roths) faster than the low interest rate of the mortgage. Or 2) should you decide to part ways with the bank by paying off the mortgage immediately, you have the money to do it. (i.e. If you want to modify the house but the bank doesn't approve, no problem, you have the extra money in your investments to immediately pay off the mortgage and do what you want with the house).