Paid either monthly or in a lump sum upfront, typically, you can expect PMI to cost between 0.58% to 1.86% of the loan amount according to mortgage insurance data from the Urban Institute. In dollars, Freddie Mac estimates this to look like $30 to $70 per $100,000 added to a monthly mortgage payment.
PMI typically costs 0.5 – 1% of your loan amount per year. Let's take a second and put those numbers in perspective. If you buy a $300,000 home, you would be paying anywhere between $1,500 – $3,000 per year in mortgage insurance.
Example of Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI)
For the same $200,000 loan, you might pay 1.4% upfront, or $2,800. However, it's important to consult your lender for details on your PMI options and the costs before making a decision.
While the amount you pay for PMI can vary, you can expect to pay approximately between $30 and $70 per month for every $100,000 borrowed.
Most commonly, PMI is paid as a monthly premium that's added to your mortgage payment to go along with property taxes, homeowners insurance and homeowners association dues. Other options include an upfront premium paid at closing and a combination of upfront and monthly premiums.
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.
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.
It's nearly impossible to make that kind of return in the stock market, retirement account, or another financial instrument. PMI, then, can be viewed as an investment — a very sound one — and not a waste of money.
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.
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).
One way to avoid paying PMI is to make a down payment that is equal to at least one-fifth of the purchase price of the home; in mortgage-speak, the mortgage's loan-to-value (LTV) ratio is 80%. If your new home costs $180,000, for example, you would need to put down at least $36,000 to avoid paying PMI.
To sum up, when it comes to PMI, if you have less than 20% of the sales price or value of a home to use as a down payment, you have two basic options: Use a "stand-alone" first mortgage and pay PMI until the LTV of the mortgage reaches 78%, at which point the PMI can be eliminated. 2. Use a second mortgage.
Your closing costs are being paid by the seller.
If you negotiate for the seller to pay a percentage of your closing costs, you can apply the credit toward your PMI expense, which means the seller is effectively buying out your PMI.
No, PMI does not decrease over time. However, if you have a conventional mortgage, you'll be able to cancel PMI once your mortgage balance is equal to 80% of your home's value at the time of purchase.
You may be able to get rid of PMI earlier by asking the mortgage servicer, in writing, to drop PMI once your mortgage balance reaches 80% of the home's value at the time you bought it.
If you've owned the home for at least five years, and your loan balance is no more than 80 percent of the new valuation, you can ask for PMI to be cancelled. If you've owned the home for at least two years, your remaining mortgage balance must be no greater than 75 percent.
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.
Get an 80-10-10 loan
One loan covers 80% of the home price, and the other loan covers a 10% down payment. Combined with your savings for a 10% down payment, this type of loan can help you avoid PMI.
It is absolutely ok to put 10 percent down on a house. In fact, first-time buyers put down only 6 percent on average. Just note that with 10 percent down, you'll have a higher monthly payment than if you'd put 20 percent down.
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.
Mortgage insurance is required on most loans when borrowers put down less than 20 percent. All FHA loans require the borrower to pay two mortgage insurance premiums: Upfront mortgage insurance premium: 1.75 percent of the loan amount, paid when the borrower gets the 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.
Let's look at an example using a $250,000 home. A 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at 3.5% interest and 3% down would result in a monthly principal and interest payment of $1,088. Putting 5% down drops your monthly payment by only $22, but 10% down means a monthly savings of $78 compared with a 3% down payment.
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.