Rather than paying out a death benefit to your beneficiaries after you die as traditional life insurance does, mortgage life insurance only pays off a mortgage when the borrower dies as long as the loan still exists. This is a big benefit to your heirs if you die and leave behind a balance on your mortgage.
The good news about PMI is that in most cases, you won't have to continue paying it for the entire length of your home loan. Most mortgage insurance plans allow you to cancel your policy once you've paid off more than 20% of the full loan amount of your home.
Both term insurance and mortgage life insurance provide a means of paying off your mortgage. With either type of insurance, you pay regular premiums to keep the coverage in force. But with mortgage life insurance, your mortgage lender is the beneficiary of the policy rather than beneficiaries you designate.
PMI will reimburse the mortgage lender if you default on your loan and your house isn't worth enough to repay the debt in full through a foreclosure sale. PMI has nothing to do with job loss, disability, or death, and it won't pay your mortgage if one of these things happens to you.
A refund of an upfront mortgage insurance premium (MIP) payment can be requested through HUD's Single Family Insurance Operations Division (SFIOD). On the FHA Connection, go to the Upfront Premium Collection menu and select Request a Refund in the Pay Upfront Premium section.
This means the amount owed remains the same throughout the whole mortgage term and doesn't decrease. At the end of the loan, you still need to pay off the original amount borrowed. With level-term insurance, the payout remains the same throughout the policy to reflect the unchanging mortgage balance.
For conventional loans, mortgage insurance is temporary. It's only required until your home equity percent reaches 20% of your home's market value. In time, because your monthly mortgage payment includes principal repayment, you're likely to gain that home equity and petition your lender to cancel PMI.
PMI is insurance for the mortgage lender's benefit, not yours. You pay a monthly premium to the insurer, and the coverage will pay a portion of the balance due to the mortgage lender in the event you default on the home loan.
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.
Mortgage insurance lowers the risk to the lender of making a loan to you, so you can qualify for a loan that you might not otherwise be able to get. Typically, borrowers making a down payment of less than 20 percent of the purchase price of the home will need to pay for mortgage insurance.
If you and your spouse happened to have a mortgage on the property at the time of your spouse's death, you would now be entirely responsible for making those payments every month. In most states, the mortgage lender has a lien on your home until you pay off the mortgage company in full.
Mortgage protection insurance, also referred to as mortgage life insurance and mortgage protection life insurance, is a form of life or disability insurance that pays off the outstanding balance of a home loan should the mortgage holder die or suffer a serious disability that prevents them from earning an income.
The cost of mortgage protection insurance will vary depending on how much a homeowner's mortgage is. Customers can expect to pay an average of $50 per month, but some monthly premiums could be as low as $5.50. Conversely, the average monthly cost of life insurance is $27.
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.
Private mortgage insurance does nothing for you
Unlike the principal of your loan, your PMI payment doesn't go into building equity in your home.
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).
If you make $3,000 a month ($36,000 a year), your DTI with an FHA loan should be no more than $1,290 ($3,000 x 0.43) — which means you can afford a house with a monthly payment that is no more than $900 ($3,000 x 0.31). FHA loans typically allow for a lower down payment and credit score if certain requirements are met.
It's better to put 20 percent down if you want the lowest possible interest rate and monthly payment. But if you want to get into a house now and start building equity, it may be better to buy with a smaller down payment — say 5 to 10 percent down.
When mortgage rates are low, you might consider refinancing your mortgage to save on interest costs or reduce your monthly payments. At the same time, refinancing might enable you to eliminate PMI if your new mortgage balance is below 80 percent of the home value.
You pay your PMI payment into your escrow account each month. You also pay a lump sum at closing called your upfront mortgage insurance premium. This is a one-time payment due at closing to your lender for issuing the FHA loan.
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.
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.
While the law has changed more than once on this issue, current guidance states that borrowers who put down less than 10 percent on an FHA loan must pay for FHA mortgage insurance until the entire loan term is over. If you put down at least 10 percent, however, you can have FHA MIP removed after 11 years of payments.
FHA mortgage insurance premium (MIP)
You pay the annual mortgage insurance premium, or MIP, in monthly installments for the life of the FHA loan if you put down less than 10%. If you put down over 10%, you pay MIP for 11 years.