There are two separate paths to removing conventional PMI: your federal cancellation rights based on the home's original value, and an early-removal request based on current value. Keep them straight, because the rules differ. The original-value path comes from the federal Homeowners Protection Act: - Request at 80%. You can ask your servicer to cancel PMI once your balance reaches, or is first scheduled to reach, 80% of the home's original value (the lesser of your purchase price and the appraisal at origination), with a good payment history and no junior-lien issues. - Automatic at 78%. The servicer must drop PMI on its own once the balance is first scheduled to hit 78% of original value, as long as you are current. The current-value path is the one most people ask about when their home has appreciated. You petition the servicer, usually with a new appraisal (sometimes an automated valuation is accepted), and the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac servicing rules set the bar: - Loan seasoned 2 to 5 years: loan-to-value of 75% or less against the new value. - Seasoned more than 5 years: 80% or less. - Under 2 years: current value only counts if the gain came from documented property improvements, and then the bar is 75%. - An acceptable payment history is required throughout. Practical move: call your servicer, ask exactly what they need (appraisal versus automated value, seasoning, the equity percentage), and get it in writing before you pay for anything. One note on FHA: its mortgage insurance works differently. For FHA case numbers assigned on or after June 3, 2013, putting less than 10% down means the annual mortgage insurance runs for the life of the loan, and hitting an equity number does not remove it. Refinancing out of FHA is the way off of it.