PMI Removal Calculator

Under the Homeowners Protection Act you can ask your servicer in writing to cancel PMI once your balance reaches 80% of the home's original value, either on the original schedule or sooner through extra payments. You must be current, have a good payment history and no second mortgage, and the lender can ask for proof the value has not fallen. If you do nothing, PMI must end when the balance is scheduled to reach 78%, and in any case at the middle of the loan's term.

For a purchase, the lower of the sale price and the appraised value when the loan was made. For a refinance, the appraisal the lender used. A rise in your home's value does not count under the 80% and 78% rules, but Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac allow a separate route based on a new appraisal.

Often, for loans owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. After two years, PMI can be cancelled if the balance is no more than 75% of a new appraisal; after five years, 80%. You usually pay for the appraisal, and the payment-history rules still apply. Ask your servicer which investor owns your loan.

They bring forward the date you can ask to cancel, because the 80% test can use your actual balance. They do not move the automatic 78% date, which follows the original schedule only. So if you prepay, you have to make the request yourself.

For FHA loans with case numbers assigned from 3 June 2013: if you put down at least 10% (an original loan-to-value of 90% or less), the annual mortgage insurance premium ends after 11 years. With less than 10% down it lasts for the life of the loan, and the usual way out is refinancing to a conventional loan once you have enough equity. VA loans have no monthly mortgage insurance.