a home of one's own

well, nobody knows what it is really. it's like kramer and his foggy understanding of tax 'write-off's. if you ask a home owner on what an escrow account is (like jerry called kramer on the write-off issue) - i bet 8 out of 10 people won't know what to say.
my friend recently sold his house - the day before i made an offer on the one i am trying to buy, incidentally - and he had to pay arrears on his taxes for the 7 months of 2005 at the time of closing. it appears that your escrow account tax payment is behind by one year. now - my question is - how does that happen? you have been paying on time - if anything you are made to pay taxes two months in advance at the time you close on a house. so how did you get to be behind on your taxes?? this is where the escrow account comes in. apparently they hold the money in this account before it can make its way out to the various agencies that need to be paid, such as your mortgage, insurance and taxes. why do we exactly need this intermediary? why can't we make the payments like we do in all other instances? it's not just a question of saving agency costs but also eliminating the co-ordination and management problems that the mortgage accounts are rife with.