It depends on your original down payment: put down less than 10% and FHA mortgage insurance stays for the life of the loan; put down 10% or more and it drops off automatically after 11 years. Most FHA buyers put down 3.5%, so the life-of-loan case is the common one. No amount of equity cancels the annual MIP on those loans; only refinancing out of FHA or selling ends it. Conventional loans work differently under federal law. You can request PMI cancellation once your balance reaches 80% of the home's original value, and it terminates automatically once the balance is scheduled to hit 78%, as long as your payments are current. That difference is the main reason people refinance out of FHA once they have enough equity, since moving to a conventional loan at 20%-plus equity ends the mortgage insurance entirely. You can combine the equity you have already built with additional funds to reach that 20% (at 10% equity, you would bring the other 10%), and closing costs come with any refinance: pay them from funds or equity, or take a slightly higher rate for a lender credit. One reframe worth keeping in mind: look at your interest rate and the mortgage insurance together as one effective all-in rate. If you locked a very low rate, the combined cost can still be excellent, and most people sell or refinance long before the life-of-loan clock ever matters. MIP rates and program details change over time, so confirm the current FHA rules before you plan around them.