Trump's Automatic PMI Cancellation Skips the Mortgage You Already Have. Ask for It Yourself.

If you’re paying private mortgage insurance right now, the White House just announced a fix that isn’t for you.

The fact sheet for the October 22 executive order says FHFA will “cancel borrowers’ mortgage insurance premiums proactively once they have satisfied their equity requirements based on the current market value.” Sounds like your servicer is about to notice your house went up and drop the charge on its own.

Read the order itself. Section 2 says the pilot applies “only to mortgages made after the establishment of the pilot program.”

That pilot doesn’t exist yet. Your loan does. So you’re out.

The fact sheet skips that clause. Yahoo Finance’s write-up said the pilot “would streamline existing processes,” which only works if your loan is in it. And there’s more fine print. The FHFA Director acts only “if he determines” the pilot is in the best interests of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHFA and the public. The manufactured housing task force in the same order gets a 180-day deadline. The PMI pilot gets none.

Here’s what they’re not telling you: the automatic version is coming, maybe, for people who haven’t bought yet. The people who bought at peak prices with 5 or 10 percent down, and who are paying the premium today, keep the old system. And on current value, the old system only moves when you ask.

That’s not a figure of speech. Fannie Mae’s Servicing Guide says the servicer “must only terminate MI based on current value of the property in response to a borrower-initiated request.” Since September 16, Lender Letter LL-2026-07 lets Fannie’s servicers call you about it, and the call just tells you what to do next. Nothing makes them dial.

Now the money. Freddie Mac puts PMI at $30 to $70 a month per $100,000 borrowed, per Yahoo Finance’s report on the order. On a $360,000 loan, that’s $108 to $252 a month. Up to about $3,000 a year, for a policy that protects your lender, not you.

Run a real one. You bought a $400,000 house three years ago with 10 percent down, $360,000 at 6.75 percent. Your balance today is about $347,700, which is 87 percent of what you paid. The free federal route, which runs on original value, is years off.

The current-value route is the shortcut. Fannie wants 75 percent loan-to-value or less on a loan two to five years old. Divide $347,700 by 0.75 and you need the house to appraise at about $463,600, roughly 16 percent above your price, in three years. That’s a big ask. If your house cleared it, you qualify today, and no pilot is coming to tell you.

Do this now. Pull your statement and divide your balance by a realistic sale price for your house. Under 75 percent on a two-to-five-year-old loan, or under 80 percent past year five, means you call your servicer and ask in writing for cancellation based on current value. Ask what the valuation costs first, because you pay for it. Check your record too: no payment 30 days late in the past year, none 60 days late in the past two.

Not close? Find the month your balance hits 80 percent of the original price with our mortgage calculator, and put it on your calendar. That request is a federal right, as the CFPB explains it. We walked through why appreciation alone rarely gets you there and why the servicer call may never come.

The rest of the order is a refinance story. Section 4 tells FHFA to make its title insurance waiver permanent and nationwide. FHFA’s own pilot FAQ pegged the savings at $500 to $1,500 in closing costs, on refinances under 80 percent loan-to-value. File that away for when rates give you a reason to refinance. More on the moving parts of your payment at the mortgages hub.

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