For homeowners with a conventional mortgage loan, you may be able to get rid of PMI with a new appraisal if your home value has risen enough to put you over 20 percent equity. However, some loan servicers will re-evaluate PMI based only on the original appraisal.
You can wait for PMI to cancel automatically, or you can request early cancellation, get a reappraisal or refinance the mortgage to get rid of it.
Whether you'll need PMI on the new loan will depend on your home's current value and the principal balance of the new mortgage. You can likely get rid of PMI if your equity has increased to at least 20% and you don't use a cash-out refinance.
You have the right to request that your servicer cancel PMI when you have reached the date when the principal balance of your mortgage is scheduled to fall to 80 percent of the original value of your home. This date should have been given to you in writing on a PMI disclosure form when you received your mortgage.
Higher Sale Appraisal
When you enter into a contract to buy a home, your lender will require that the house be appraised to determine its value. If the initial appraisal comes in higher than what you've agreed to pay for the home, it will increase your equity, which can lower the amount of PMI needed.
You may ask the lender to cancel PMI when you have paid down the mortgage balance to 80% of the home's original appraised value. When the balance drops to 78%, the mortgage servicer is required to eliminate PMI.
If you have one of the programs outlined below, PMI or the equivalent mortgage insurance can never be removed from your loan. With these mortgages, if you ask the lender to remove PMI, they will rightfully refuse your request.
Is PMI deductible? The legislation, signed into law Dec. 20, 2019, not only makes the deduction available again for eligible homeowners for the 2020 and future tax years, but also enables taxpayers to take it retroactively for the 2018 and 2019 tax years by filing amended returns.
Can you get rid of PMI on an FHA loan without refinancing? It could be possible to eliminate your FHA mortgage insurance premium without refinancing. But only if you got your loan before 2013 or put at least 10% down when you bought the home.
Getting rid of PMI is fairly straightforward: Once you accrue 20 percent equity in your home, either by making payments to reach that level or by increasing your home's value, you can request to have PMI removed.
The traditional way to avoid paying PMI on a mortgage is to take out a piggyback loan. In that event, if you can only put up 5 percent down for your mortgage, you take out a second "piggyback" mortgage for 15 percent of the loan balance, and combine them for your 20 percent down payment.
The only way to cancel PMI is to refinance your mortgage. If you refinance your current loan's interest rate or refinance into a different loan type, you may be able to cancel your mortgage insurance.
Effective FHA case numbers issued June 3, 2013 and later, FHA mortgage insurance will become a permanent part of the FHA mortgage payment.
A PMI tax deduction is only possible if you itemize your federal tax deductions. For anyone taking the standard tax deduction, PMI doesn't really matter, Han says. Roughly 86% of households are estimated to take the standard deduction, according to the Tax Foundation.
Taxpayers have been able to deduct PMI in the past, and the Consolidated Appropriations Act extended the deduction into 2020 and 2021. The deduction is subject to qualified taxpayers' AGI limits and begins phasing out at $100,000 and ends at those with an AGI of $109,000 (regardless of filing status).
The first is your annual income. If your adjusted gross income for the year is $109,000 or more, you're not qualified for a PMI deduction. For married couples filing separately, if each partner earns more than $54,500, you also won't be able to claim a PMI tax deduction.
Make the PMI cancellation request to your lender or servicer in writing. Be current on your mortgage payments, with a good payment history. Meet other lender requirements, such as having no other liens on the home (i.e., a second mortgage). If required, you might need to get a home appraisal.
Dear (Servicer Name): I am requesting to cancel my private mortgage insurance. The coverage is with (Mortgage Insurance Company Name) and my mortgage loan number is (loan number). I have included documentation to support why I think the equity in my home has reached or exceeded 20%.
FHA mortgage insurance might get cheaper this year
FHA borrowers currently pay 0.85% annually in mortgage insurance premiums (MIP).
Save For A Larger Down Payment
The easiest way to lower your MIP expenses with an FHA loan is to save more for a down payment. If you're able to bring at least 10% to the closing table, you'll qualify for a lower annual MIP payment. You'll also lower the amount that you borrow, which results in a lower upfront premium.
Before buying a home, you should ideally save enough money for a 20% down payment. If you can't, it's a safe bet that your lender will force you to secure private mortgage insurance (PMI) prior to signing off on the loan, if you're taking out a conventional mortgage.
Conventional PMI goes away on its own when you have 22% home equity. You build equity as you pay down your mortgage and as your home's value increases. You can request PMI cancellation when you have 20% home equity.
FHA mortgage loans don't require PMI, but they do require an Up Front Mortgage Insurance Premium and a mortgage insurance premium (MIP) to be paid instead. Depending on the terms and conditions of your home loan, most FHA loans today will require MIP for either 11 years or the lifetime of the mortgage.
When PMI is canceled, the lender has 45 days to refund applicable premiums. That said, do you get PMI back when you sell your house? It's a reasonable question considering the new borrower is on the hook for mortgage insurance moving forward. Unfortunately for you, the seller, the premiums you paid won't be refunded.
“In order to get your private mortgage insurance removed, you may need to be on the loan for a minimum of 12 months,” shares Helali. “After you've been on the loan for one year, the lender should automatically dissolve the PMI when you have 22% equity in the home.”