http://www.aboutpmi.com Your Guide to Understanding PMI Tue, 09 Jan 2007 13:53:09 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en If you've ever been in the market for a mortgage, you're probably familiar with some of the bigger names in the business like Lending Tree, Yahoo! Finance, and Bankrate.com when it comes to researching the best rates, terms, and offers for mortgages out there. Of course, those make perfect sense ... http://www.aboutpmi.com/foolcouk-mortgage-website-review.html That's right! This totally changes the decision between whether to get private mortgage insurance or to get a piggyback loan because now, for mortgages originating in 2007, you will be able to deduct PMI as if it were mortgage interest. Here are the caveats: • The tax deduction applies only to mortgages ... http://www.aboutpmi.com/private-mortgage-insurance-is-now-tax-deductible.html From the Sun Herald: Bruce Hahn, president of the American Homeowners Grassroots Alliance, believes there's a better chance Congress will make private mortgage-insurance payments tax-deductible. "I think it's going to help expand homeownership among low- to moderate-income borrowers," Hahn said. http://www.aboutpmi.com/democrats-more-likely-to-make-pmi-tax-deductible.html According to the folks over at Bankrate, your credit score is not the only factor when it comes to determining your private mortgage insurance rates, the following factors also play a major role: Size of the down payment. Your PMI premium will be higher if you put down 5 percent, versus ... http://www.aboutpmi.com/what-affects-private-mortgage-insurance-rates.html Private mortgage insurance protects your lender in the event you default on your payments, it is not homeowners insurance, which protects your personal property and your home in the event of some sort of accident or theft (depending on your policy). Do not confuse the two! You often have no choice ... http://www.aboutpmi.com/private-mortgage-insurance-is-not-homeowners-insurance.html According to the Mortgage Bankers Association of America (MBAA), private mortgage insurance should cost somewhere in the range of one-half of one percent of your loan amount. If your loan is for $100,000 then you would expect to pay around $500 each year for private mortgage insurance on top of ... http://www.aboutpmi.com/how-much-should-mortgage-insurance-cost.html Check out the answer for this question from Inman Consumer News: DON'T BE A CHEAPSKATE TO GET RID OF MORTGAGE INSURANCE DEAR BOB: I need to get an appraisal from a certified licensed appraiser to prove my loan-to-value ratio is below 80 percent so my PMI (private mortgage insurance) monthly premium can ... http://www.aboutpmi.com/frugal-with-real-estate-appraisals.html If you are paying private mortgage insurance and only making the minimum payments on your mortgage each month, consider adding a little extra to your payment in order to get you loan to value under 80%. For mortgage holders who aren't paying PMI, the incentive to pay extra turns a ... http://www.aboutpmi.com/pay-down-your-mortgage-faster.html The Homeowner's Protection Act of 1998 also has one other way to get your private mortgage insurance cancelled even if you haven't reached a LTV of 80% (or 78%), when you've reached the chronological midway point of your mortgage loan then your PMI will be automatically cancelled. So on a ... http://www.aboutpmi.com/final-termination-of-pmi.html There are three ways to get rid of PMI and these are all strategies to get your loan to value ratio down to 80% or less: 1. This case is the easiest, you're already at 80% and you haven't told the lender you want it cancelled (you always do). If the ... http://www.aboutpmi.com/getting-rid-of-pmi.html