How to Remove PMI From Your Mortgage in 2026

Pull up your monthly mortgage statement and find the line labeled "PMI" or "mortgage insurance." On a $300,000 loan it typically runs somewhere between $115 and $375 a month, based on Urban Institute pricing data cited by Bankrate. The yearly cost ranges from about 0.46% to 1.50% of the original loan amount, and your credit score and down payment decided where in that range you landed.

That payment doesn't protect you. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is plain about it: mortgage insurance protects the lender, not you, if you fall behind. It was the price of buying with less than 20% down. It was never meant to last for the life of the loan.

A federal law, the Homeowners Protection Act of 1998, spells out when private mortgage insurance has to end, and it gives you three exits. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which own a big share of U.S. mortgages, add a fourth based on what your home is worth today. After several years of rising prices, that fourth exit is the one plenty of owners already qualify for without knowing it.

Only the two slowest exits are automatic. The faster ones require you to ask, in writing, and to meet a short list of conditions.

80% is the number to remember. When your loan balance reaches 80% of your home's original value, federal law gives you the right to ask your servicer in writing to cancel PMI. Automatic removal doesn't kick in until 78%.

The four exits

Request at 80%. According to the CFPB, you can ask for cancellation on the date your principal balance is scheduled to hit 80% of the original value, or sooner if extra payments got you there first. Under the law the servicer has to agree if you ask in writing, you're current with a good payment history, and you certify there's no second mortgage or other junior lien on the house. The lender can also ask for evidence that the home's value hasn't dropped below the original value.

Automatic at 78%. The servicer must end PMI on the date your balance is scheduled to reach 78% of original value, as long as you're current. That date comes from the original payment schedule. Extra payments you've made don't move it.

The midpoint. If PMI is somehow still on the bill, it has to end the month after you pass the halfway point of the loan term. On a 30-year mortgage, that's year 15.

All three rights apply to loans on a single-family primary residence that closed on or after July 29, 1999. FHA and VA loans follow different rules, covered below. So does lender-paid mortgage insurance, where the cost is baked into your interest rate.

What does "original value" mean, and why does it slow you down?

For a purchase, original value is the lower of the sales price and the appraisal at closing. If you've refinanced, it's the appraised value at the refinance. Either way, it never changes afterward. That's the weak spot of the first three exits: they ignore every dollar your home has gained since you bought it.

Take a buyer who paid $340,000 with 5% down, so the loan started at $323,000. The 80% mark is a balance of $272,000, and the 78% mark is $265,200. On a 30-year loan, scheduled payments alone take about 7 years to reach 80% at a 3% rate and about 11 years at 7%, with roughly one more year to hit 78%. At $200 a month in PMI, ten years of waiting is $24,000.

You can speed things up with extra principal payments, since the 80% request can be based on your actual balance. For most people who bought in the last several years, though, the bigger lever is the house itself. If it's worth noticeably more than you paid, you may already be past the line under the fourth route. That one works on today's value.

The current-value route

Fannie Mae's Servicing Guide lets a borrower ask for cancellation based on the property's current value. The thresholds for a one-unit primary residence or second home are specific:

• If the loan is between two and five years old, the balance must be 75% or less of the current value.
• If it's more than five years old, the balance must be 80% or less.
• If you made substantial improvements, such as a kitchen or bath renovation or added square footage, the servicer can waive the two-year wait, but the balance still has to be 80% or less of current value.
• For investment properties and two- to four-unit homes, the mark is 70%, and the loan has to be more than two years old.

Freddie Mac has its own current-value option. Get the exact terms from your servicer.

Go back to the $340,000 buyer. Say the loan is four years old at a 5.5% rate, so the balance is now about $305,000, and similar homes on the street are selling for $415,000. Loan-to-value on current value is about 73.5%. That clears the 75% bar. Years before the balance would reach 80% of the original price.

Qualifying on paper is the easy part. Whether the servicer says yes comes down to two conditions and to how you file the request.

Two conditions trip people up. The payment record has to be clean: Fannie Mae requires that you be current, with no payment 30 or more days late in the past 12 months and none 60 or more days late in the past 24. And the servicer has to order the valuation through Fannie Mae's process, with an inspection of both the interior and the exterior. An appraisal you order on your own won't count. You'll normally pay for the servicer's valuation, so ask the price before you commit.

Got an FHA loan? Then the line on your statement is a mortgage insurance premium, or MIP, and the Homeowners Protection Act doesn't apply to it.

FHA charges 1.75% of the loan up front plus an annual premium. Under HUD's current rate table, in place since March 2023, the annual charge runs from 0.15% to 0.75% of the balance depending on the term, loan size and down payment, and it's 0.55% on a typical 30-year loan with 3.5% down. For loans made after June 3, 2013, how long it lasts depends on your down payment. Put 10% or more down and MIP ends after 11 years. Put down less and it stays for the life of the loan, no matter how much equity you build.

For those borrowers the only real exit is to replace the loan. Once you've got about 20% equity, refinancing from FHA into a conventional mortgage ends mortgage insurance entirely. If your FHA loan predates June 2013, ask your servicer which rules apply, because earlier loans were handled differently.

VA loans? No monthly mortgage insurance at all.

Is refinancing the better exit?

Refinancing removes PMI if the new loan is 80% or less of the home's current appraised value. It tends to make sense in three cases: you've got an FHA loan with lifetime MIP, your loan is too new for the current-value route, or your rate is higher than what lenders offer today.

Low rate already? Then it rarely makes sense. An owner with a 3% mortgage who refinances at a much higher rate to drop a $150 PMI charge can end up with a bigger payment. For that owner the written request is the better tool, even if it means waiting.

The test is a break-even calculation, and the fees are bigger than people expect: Freddie Mac tells borrowers to plan on 3% to 6% of the loan principal in refinance closing costs. Divide the total cost by your monthly savings, counting both the PMI you drop and any change in interest. Say closing costs are $9,000 and the new loan saves $250 a month. You break even in 36 months. If you'll stay well past that, the refinance pays; if you might sell in two years, it doesn't. A refinance calculator does the arithmetic in a minute, and I'd run it before talking to any lender.

Rates and fees differ by lender on the same day, so ask at least three for a Loan Estimate, the standard three-page form, and compare the same term and the same points. Get a realistic home value first. The appraisal decides whether the new loan lands under 80%.

Mistakes that keep PMI on the bill

• Waiting for the automatic date. It's based on the original schedule and the original value. You may have qualified years earlier.
• Ordering your own appraisal. The servicer has to order it for the result to count.
• A late payment in the past year. One payment 30 days late in the last 12 months can push your request back until it ages out.
• Opening a home equity line first. A junior lien can block cancellation under the federal rules. If you plan to do both, remove PMI first.
• Asking while values are falling. If the valuation comes in low, you've paid the fee for nothing. Check recent sales before you apply.
• Assuming lender-paid mortgage insurance works the same way. It usually can't be cancelled. It's part of your rate, and generally only a refinance changes it.

A tax note: starting with the 2026 tax year, mortgage insurance premiums are deductible again for some taxpayers who itemize, under the 2025 tax law, with the benefit phasing out once adjusted gross income passes $100,000. That softens the cost a little. Only a little. An expense you can cancel still beats one you can deduct.

Tonight, find the PMI line and do two divisions: your balance over your original value, then your balance over a careful estimate of today's value. If either comes out at or under the thresholds in the table, write to your servicer this week.

This article is general information, not financial, legal, tax or medical advice.