Have equity in your home? Want a lower payment? An appraisal from Northeast Valuation Group can help you get rid of your PMI.When purchasing a home, a 20% down payment is usually the standard. Considering the risk for the lender is often only the remainder between the home value and the amount remaining on the loan, the 20% provides a nice cushion against the charges of foreclosure, selling the home again, and typical value variationson the chance that a purchaser doesn't pay. The market was accepting down payments down to 10, 5 and often 0 percent during the mortgage boom of the mid 2000s. A lender is able to handle the increased risk of the minimal down payment with Private Mortgage Insurance or PMI. This supplementary policy guards the lender if a borrower doesn't pay on the loan and the worth of the property is less than what is owed on the loan. Since the $40-$50 a month per $100,000 borrowed is lumped into the mortgage monthly payment and many times isn't even tax deductible, PMI can be pricey to a borrower. Separate from a piggyback loan where the lender consumes all the losses, PMI is advantageous for the lender because they acquire the money, and they get paid if the borrower defaults. ![]() Does your monthly mortgage payment include PMI? Contact us, you may be able to save money by removing your PMI. How can a homeowner avoid bearing the cost of PMI?With the employment of The Homeowners Protection Act of 1998, on most loans lenders are forced to automatically terminate the PMI when the principal balance of the loan reaches 78 percent of the primary loan amount. Acute home owners can get off the hook ahead of time. The law guarantees that, upon request of the home owner, the PMI must be dropped when the principal amount equals just 80 percent. It can take many years to arrive at the point where the principal is only 20% of the initial amount borrowed, so it's crucial to know how your home has appreciated in value. After all, all of the appreciation you've acquired over the years counts towards dismissing PMI. So why should you pay it after the balance of your loan has dropped below the 80% threshold? Even when nationwide trends forecast decreasing home values, understand that real estate is local. Your neighborhood may not be adopting the national trends and/or your home could have gained equity before things cooled off. The toughest thing for almost all homeowners to know is just when their home's equity rises above the 20% point. An accredited, licensed real estate appraiser can definitely help. It is an appraiser's job to know the market dynamics of their area. At Northeast Valuation Group, we know when property values have risen or declined. We're masters at analyzing value trends in Fairfield County and New Haven Counties. When faced with data from an appraiser, the mortgage company will most often do away with the PMI with little effort. At that time, the homeowner can enjoy the savings from that point on.
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