Mortgage insurance does not disappear under one rule for every loan: conventional PMI and FHA mortgage insurance follow different requirements. Start by identifying the loan and insurance type on your documents.

For many covered conventional mortgages with borrower-paid PMI, the CFPB explains two important thresholds. You may request cancellation when the principal balance reaches 80% of the home's original value, including through extra payments. Conditions include a written request, a satisfactory payment history, being current and meeting applicable property-value and junior-lien requirements. Automatic termination generally occurs at the date the balance is scheduled to reach 78% of original value, provided payments are current.

Original value is not simply today's online price estimate. For a purchase, it generally means the lower of the purchase price and original appraisal. Other investor or servicer rules may permit cancellation based on later appreciation, but that is not an automatic consequence of the federal 80% rule.

Example: with a $300,000 original value, 80% is $240,000 and 78% is $234,000. Those calculations identify thresholds; they do not prove that all cancellation conditions have been met.

FHA's annual mortgage insurance premium, usually collected monthly, is different. For FHA case numbers assigned on or after June 3, 2013, HUD's duration table generally provides 11 years when the original loan-to-value ratio is no more than 90%, and the loan term when it exceeds 90%. Older FHA loans have different rules.

Review our mortgage types guide, then request your servicer's written cancellation criteria. Do not stop paying insurance yourself or assume refinancing is worthwhile without comparing its costs and terms.