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What Is Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI)?

What Is Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI)? | Keeping Current Matters

When it comes to buying a home, whether it is your first time or your fifth, it is always important to know all the facts. With the large number of mortgage programs available that allow buyers to purchase homes with down payments below 20%, you can never have too much information about Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI).

What is PMI?

Freddie Mac defines PMI as:

“An insurance policy that protects the lender if you are unable to pay your mortgage. It’s a monthly fee, rolled into your mortgage payment, that is required for all conforming, conventional loans that have down payments less than 20%.

Once you’ve built equity of 20% in your home, you can cancel your PMI and remove that expense from your mortgage payment.”

As the borrower, you pay the monthly premiums for the insurance policy, and the lender is the beneficiary. Freddie Mac goes on to explain that:

“The cost of PMI varies based on your loan-to-value ratio – the amount you owe on your mortgage compared to its value – and credit score, but you can expect to pay between $30 and $70 per month for every $100,000 borrowed.”

According to the National Association of Realtors, the average down payment for all buyers last year was 10%. For first-time buyers, that number dropped to 5%, while repeat buyers put down 14% (no doubt aided by the sale of their homes). This just goes to show that for a large number of buyers last year, PMI did not stop them from buying their dream homes.

Here’s an example of the cost of a mortgage on a $200,000 home with a 5% down payment & PMI, compared to a 20% down payment without PMI:

What Is Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI)? | Keeping Current Matters

The larger the down payment you can make, the lower your monthly housing cost will be, but Freddie Mac urges you to remember:

“It’s no doubt an added cost, but it’s enabling you to buy now and begin building equity versus waiting 5 to 10 years to build enough savings for a 20% down payment.”

Bottom Line

If you have questions about whether you should buy now or wait until you’ve saved a larger down payment, meet with me, your experienced professional to explain the market’s conditions and help you make the best decision for you and your family.

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    Client Reviews

    5/5

    It has really been a pleasure for us to work with Rama Mehra who helped us buy our first home. We were first time home buyers and Rama guided us patiently throughout the buying process. She understood our requirements and budget constraints and gave us a realistic picture of the market situation and showed us the inventory that met our constraints. She is an area expert in Tri-Valley region and she keeps touch with her clients even after the escrow process, keeping them updated on the market performance. We strongly recommend Rama and will be glad to do work with her for our future real estate needs.

    01/15/2015 Read More
    Raghu & Supraiya (via Zillow)
    See more reviews on Zillow


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