Mortgage insurance protects your lender from financial losses if you default on your mortgage. You’re usually required to pay for mortgage insurance if you make less than a 20% down payment on a conventional loan, or if you choose a government-backed home loan program.
Understanding how mortgage insurance works can help you avoid or reduce the cost.
Mortgage insurance will pay your lender a certain amount of money if you’re unable to repay your mortgage loan. This reduces financial risk for lenders, which allows them to offer mortgages with more relaxed requirements.
→ Mortgage insurance is typically required on a conventional loan if you make less than a 20% down payment. This type of plan is called private mortgage insurance (PMI). The “private” means that the insurance is provided by private companies, and is not insured by the government. You’ll typically pay for it monthly, as a part of your regular mortgage payments.
→ Mortgage insurance is also required for FHA loans, which are backed by the Federal Housing Administration, regardless of your down payment amount. You’ll pay for two types of FHA mortgage insurance:
For conventional loans you’ll pay an average of $30 to $70 per month for every $100,000 you borrow in PMI premiums. For a median-priced home in today’s market, that comes to around $122 to $285 per month.
For FHA loans the charge for upfront FHA mortgage insurance is generally 1.75% of your loan amount. The annual MIP ranges between 0.15% and 0.75% of your loan amount. The premium is divided by 12 and added to your monthly payment. At today’s median home price, that could mean paying around $7,136 upfront and $51 to $255 in monthly premiums.
Get a quick estimate of PMI premiums by using LendingTree’s mortgage calculator. Just be sure to check the “include PMI” box under “advanced options.”
There are two ways to pay for the upfront portion of your FHA mortgage insurance:
However, annual FHA mortgage insurance must be paid as part of your monthly mortgage payments.
Although PMI and MIP essentially do the same thing — reimburse the lender for financial losses if they have to foreclose on your home — different factors determine how much each one will cost. Depending on your financial profile, you could see significant savings by going with one or the other.
Click through the expandable sections below to see more detail on how each factor in your financial profile can affect your mortgage insurance premiums.
PMI companies are on the hook to pay claims if you default on a loan, and they consider your credit score when estimating how likely you are to default. A low credit score and down payment will result in a much higher PMI premium.However, credit score doesn’t play into the cost of either type of FHA mortgage insurance, making FHA loans a more cost-effective choice for homebuyers with rocky credit histories.
You’ll pay a higher PMI premium on a conventional loan if your debt-to-income (DTI) ratio is over 45%. There’s no markup for FHA loans based on your DTI ratio.
Conventional PMI is more expensive if you’re buying a manufactured home or multifamily home, but won’t affect FHA mortgage insurance premiums.
You’ll pay slightly lower PMI premiums if two (or more) people are on the loan, while FHA mortgage insurance premiums are the same no matter how many people apply.
Lenders divide your loan balance by your home price to determine your loan-to-value (LTV) ratio — the higher it is, the more mortgage insurance you pay. With a down payment of 20% or more, you won’t pay any PMI. FHA mortgage insurance is required regardless of your down payment or LTV ratio.
Let’s imagine a borrower with a credit score under 740 who wants to put 3.5% down on a $300,000 home. That borrower will have a slightly lower monthly payment if they go with an FHA loan instead of a conventional loan. But, if that same borrower can get their credit score above 760, they’ll save money by going with a conventional loan instead.
Note: For each credit score range listed below, the cheaper monthly payment is in green , while the more expensive option is in red .