Mortgage Insurance (PMI) Calculator

About this calculator

Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) is a monthly premium lenders require on conventional loans when the down payment is below 20 percent, protecting the lender — not you — if you default. It is priced as a percentage of the loan amount per year — commonly 0.5 to 1.5 percent depending on credit score and loan-to-value ratio (LTV) — and split into monthly installments added to your mortgage payment.

LTV, the ratio of loan balance to home value, is the number PMI pricing and cancellation both hinge on: under the U.S. Homeowners Protection Act, lenders must automatically cancel PMI once your LTV reaches 78 percent of the original home value through scheduled payments, and you can typically request cancellation yourself once it hits 80 percent — which is why homeowners track how many more principal payments stand between them and that threshold. Because PMI can add hundreds of dollars a month on a large loan, buyers weigh it directly against the cost of a bigger down payment or a piggyback second mortgage used specifically to avoid it.

Enter your home price, down payment and PMI rate, and this calculator gives you your monthly and annual PMI premium, current LTV, and the remaining principal balance before PMI can come off.