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Estimate your monthly PMI and see roughly when you can drop it as your loan pays down.
PMI applies to conventional loans with less than 20% down and is removable. FHA mortgage insurance works differently and often lasts the life of the loan unless you refinance. Estimate only.
Private mortgage insurance is added to conventional loans when you put down less than 20%. You can request cancellation at 80% loan-to-value and it auto-cancels at 78% based on the original schedule. Rising home values can also let you drop it early with a new appraisal. FHA loans use a different mortgage-insurance structure. See how to remove PMI in California.
Private mortgage insurance isn't a penalty — it's the price of buying now with less than 20% down instead of renting for another year or two while you save. On a $600,000 California home with 10% down, PMI at roughly 0.5% runs about $225 a month. In many California markets, a year of appreciation and saved rent easily outweighs that cost.
The good news is that PMI is temporary. You can request cancellation once you reach 80% loan-to-value, and it falls off automatically at 78% on the original amortization schedule. Rising home values are the fastest route in California: after 12–24 months, a new appraisal often shows enough equity to cancel PMI early. If you expect to refinance or sell within a few years, lender-paid PMI (a slightly higher rate with no monthly PMI line) can come out ahead — run both with us.
For most California buyers, buying sooner with PMI beats waiting. While you save toward 20%, home prices and rent usually keep rising — often faster than the PMI costs you. PMI also cancels later, while a higher purchase price is permanent. Run your scenario with a broker to compare.
Sometimes. An 80-10-10 piggyback pairs a first mortgage at 80% with a second lien for 10%, so you avoid PMI with just 10% down. Whether it beats paying PMI depends on the second-lien rate — we'll model both.
Roughly your loan amount times your annual PMI rate (often ~0.3%–1.0%) divided by 12. Enter your numbers for an estimate.
On conventional loans you can request removal at 80% loan-to-value and it auto-cancels at 78% on the original schedule. Appreciation plus a new appraisal can remove it sooner.
FHA has its own mortgage insurance premium (MIP), which often lasts the life of the loan unless you refinance into a conventional loan.
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