pmi

[Petunia 100]

If it's an FHA loan, the rules can be different. For example, loans issued after June-ish of 2013 require PMI to be carried for 5 full years, regardless if the LTV, which where value = purchase price, has already reached the 78% threshold.

Hud's website says you must pay for 11 years if original LTV is 90% or less, and the entire life of the loan if orginal LTV is greater than 90%. What a terrible deal. But, I guess you gotta do what you gotta do to stay solvent.

http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/housing/fhahistory

[Petunia 100]

You don't have the house reassessed when you request PMI to be dropped unless you think the value has inflated significantly and you have reached 20% before you paid down to the original 78% LTV; therefore, it doesn't matter if it takes you 2 years or to to reach that number or 10 its a fixed target.

Yes, exactly.

[ua_guy]

Hud's website says you must pay for 11 years if original LTV is 90% or less, and the entire life of the loan if orginal LTV is greater than 90%. What a terrible deal. But, I guess you gotta do what you gotta do to stay solvent.

http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?...ing/fhahistory

Those are the new rules. They were updated sometime around June 2013 as a stopgap to keep FHA programs funded. Neither of those options are appealing. The PMI requirements used to be much more lenient, 5 years or 80% (or maybe it was 78%) LTV, whichever comes first.

[edg126]

I'm not exactly sure how it works with my loan specifically on getting the PMI removed. I went through what mortgage paperwork I had, and couldn't find anything.

If what I see online is consistent with my case, once it reaches 78% equity, pmi is automatically removed. Or I can ask for a reappraisal if I think the house has gained significantly in value, which I think it has (our realtor said our township has suddenly become the place to live and she'd list it for 30K more if we sold it today).

To me, I'd rather put the $500-$700 it would cost for an appraisal into the equity of the house, so if I can avoid the reappraisal I'd do that, unless there's a clear indication that our house value has skyrocketed from a neighbors selling.