FHA MIP Removal: When You Can Cancel — and When You Can’t

An FHA loan carries a mortgage insurance premium (MIP), not private mortgage insurance (PMI). The Homeowners Protection Act does not govern MIP, so its cancellation thresholds do not apply. Whether MIP can end at all is decided by two facts: the loan’s endorsement date relative to June 2013, and the original down payment. Post-June-2013 loans with less than 10% down carry MIP for the life of the loan.

Last reviewed: 2026-09-03

Find your MIP track free →

The June 2013 rule

In June 2013 the FHA changed how long borrowers pay the Mortgage Insurance Premium. Before the change, MIP behaved a lot like conventional PMI — build enough equity and it falls off. After the change, most borrowers pay it for the life of the loan. Your origination date puts you on one of three tracks:

78% LTV

Closed before June 2013

MIP cancels once your loan balance reaches 78% of value — same shape as conventional PMI.

11 years

After June 2013 · 10%+ down

MIP ends automatically after 11 years of payments, regardless of equity.

Life of loan

After June 2013 · under 10% down

MIP never cancels on its own. Refinancing to conventional is the exit.

If you’re on the life-of-loan track

No amount of equity cancels your MIP — but equity is still your way out. Once your loan balance is 80% or less of your home’s current value, you qualify for a conventional refinance with no mortgage insurance at all. With Wasatch Front appreciation, many FHA borrowers who bought with 3.5% down are already there and don’t know it.

The math to run: monthly MIP saved versus refinance closing costs. That starts with knowing your current LTV — which is public data.

If you’re on a cancellable track

Pre-June-2013 borrowers: track your LTV against the 78% line — your servicer should terminate MIP automatically, but errors are common enough to be worth checking. Post-2013 borrowers with 10%+ down: mark the 11-year date; nothing you do speeds it up, but a conventional refinance may still beat waiting if your equity is strong.

On a conventional loan instead? Here’s the 4-step PMI removal process →

Free calculator: your LTV, and which rules apply to your loan →

Where to find your two deciding facts

Both answers are in the paperwork from your closing, not in your monthly statement:

Endorsement date. What matters is when FHA endorsed the loan, which is on or just after your closing date. If you closed in the spring of 2013 you are close to the line and it is worth confirming with your servicer in writing rather than assuming.
Original down payment. Your closing disclosure shows the purchase price and the loan amount. Divide the loan amount by the price: at or under 90% you put at least 10% down and are on the 11-year track, above 90% and you are not.
Current MIP charge. Your statement shows what you are paying each month. That number is what a refinance would eliminate, and it is the input to the comparison below.

Note that FHA also charges an upfront premium at closing, typically 1.75% of the loan amount and usually financed into the balance. It is already spent. It plays no part in whether refinancing now makes sense.

Running the refinance comparison

For life-of-loan borrowers the question is never "can I cancel" but "does refinancing out beat staying put". Four numbers decide it:

Monthly MIP you stop paying	From your statement
Refinance closing costs	Typically 2% to 5% of the new loan
Break-even	Closing costs divided by monthly MIP saved
Rate difference	New conventional rate against your current FHA rate

At $250 a month in MIP and $8,000 in closing costs, you break even on the insurance alone in about 32 months. If you plan to stay longer than that, the refinance wins even at a flat rate. If the new rate is higher than your FHA rate, add that monthly difference to the cost side before deciding, because a low pandemic-era FHA rate can outweigh the MIP saving entirely.

The one thing you cannot skip is your current loan-to-value ratio, because reaching 80% of current value is what makes a no-insurance conventional refinance available in the first place. Averages for your city are in the ZIP directory, and the free audit computes the figure for your specific parcel.

Two facts decide your track. One free audit tells you both what you’re on and whether refinancing out makes sense.

Check your equity free in under 2 minutes →

Frequently asked questions

Is FHA mortgage insurance (MIP) the same as PMI?

No. PMI applies to conventional loans and can be cancelled under the Homeowners Protection Act once the loan-to-value ratio reaches 75% on the appreciation path for a loan under 5 years old, or 80% at 5 years or older. MIP applies to FHA loans and the Act does not govern it: for a loan endorsed after June 2013 with less than 10% down, MIP lasts the life of the loan regardless of equity.

When does FHA MIP go away on its own?

Only on two tracks: loans originated before June 2013 shed MIP at 78% LTV, and loans originated after June 2013 with at least 10% down shed MIP after 11 years. Post-2013 loans with less than 10% down carry MIP for the life of the loan.

How do I get rid of FHA mortgage insurance with less than 10% down?

Refinancing into a conventional loan is the exit. Once your equity reaches 20% of current value, a conventional refinance carries no PMI at all. Rising Wasatch Front values mean many FHA borrowers reach that point years before they expect to.

Does home appreciation cancel FHA MIP?

Not directly — unlike conventional PMI, FHA MIP has no appreciation-based cancellation right. But appreciation still matters: it is what qualifies you for a no-PMI conventional refinance. Check your current LTV free to see if you're there.

How do I find out which MIP track my loan is on?

Two facts decide it: your loan's origination date (before or after June 2013) and your original down payment (under or over 10%). Both are on your closing disclosure. EquityUp's free audit classifies your loan and routes you to the right strategy.

Sources and limitations

Last reviewed: 2026-09-03.

EquityUp is a data and document-preparation service. It is not a lender, loan servicer, mortgage broker, or licensed appraiser, it does not provide legal or financial advice, and it does not contact lenders on a homeowner's behalf — the homeowner submits their own request.

Statutory basis

FHA mortgage insurance premiums are set by FHA program rules, not by the Homeowners Protection Act. The Act's cancellation thresholds do not apply to an FHA loan — 12 U.S.C. §4901(11), which limits the Act to private mortgage insurance

What this page does not cover

Coverage is limited to Utah, Salt Lake, Davis, and Weber counties in Utah. Properties outside these four counties are not in the dataset.
County assessed values reflect the assessment cycle and typically lag the market by 12 to 18 months. Where an automated valuation or an FHFA county index adjustment is available, EquityUp applies it and says so in the response; where neither is, the unadjusted assessed value is used.
City-level aggregates are filtered to detached single-family homes using the parcel-record proxy 'HOUSE_CNT = 1 AND BLDG_SQFT BETWEEN 800 AND 5000'. Condominiums, multi-family parcels, and homes outside that square-footage range are excluded.
An LTV figure derived from an assessed or automated value is not an appraisal. A lender or servicer may require its own broker price opinion or appraisal, at the homeowner's expense, before acting on a cancellation request.
Threshold and citation data describe the federal Homeowners Protection Act. Individual loan servicers may impose additional requirements, such as a minimum seasoning period or a clean payment history, that the statute does not.
MIP track classification here depends on two facts from the homeowner's closing disclosure — the endorsement date and the original down payment. EquityUp does not read closing disclosures automatically; the homeowner supplies both.
Refinancing out of FHA is a lending transaction. EquityUp does not originate, broker, or price loans, and nothing here is a quote or a recommendation to refinance.

The same thresholds and citations are available as JSON at /api/v1/hpa-rules. Documentation: /for-ai-agents.