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There have big huge changes in our lending environment over the last several months. It is harder to qualify for a home loan, and it is really harder to get a low interest loan. It is also harder to avoid Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) payments.

Private Mortgage Insurance, or PMI, is a type of policy that your lender may require you to buy before they will issue you a loan. It actually covers the loan company in case you cannot make payments. It does not cover you. You will still be responsible, and your credit can still be damaged. The reason lenders like it, is that it reduces their risk of losing money when they decide to carry your loan. But you usually have to pay for it, and it can add a few hundred dollars to your loan payment each month.

If you have 20% of your purchase price to put down, you usually do not have to take out this coverage. The lender is assured that you already share the burden of home ownership with them, and they have less risk to worry about. So if you buy a $200,000 loan, and you have $40,000 to put down, you should not need to take out this extra policy. The minute you walk into your new home, you already have a share of it. But since policy rates can be one percent of your loan value a year, you may end up paying an extra $2,000 in payments if you need to take out a loan for the entire amount without a decent sized down payment.

You can still find some ways to get out of this, even if you do not have a large down payment. These alternatives can be very important. You could probably think of a lot of other uses for your money besides helping to protect your mortgage company. You could use the money to get your loan paid off faster, for instance. You could also save it for an emergency or make home improvements that would increase its value. Almost any use seems better to me than spending it to cover your lender.

Consider an example of one way to cut out this cost. This consists of getting your lender pay the premium. They may raise your interest rate slightly if they agree to this. It is called Lender Paid PMI (LPPMI).

Let us say you have a 30 year fixed loan with a $15k balance and an interest rate of 5 1/2 percent. Your payment for the interest and princicpal would be about $850. In this case, the lender pays the premium in return for a little higher interest rate.

But if you had to pay for PMI, even if your interest was about 5.1%, your payment would be over $100 a month more! This is for the same loan. The only difference is that in one case, you have to pay for the policy. In the other case, the mortgage company will raise your interest rate a little, but pay the PMI.

Let me remind you that this hundred dollars reduces the risk to your mortgage company. Why not let them pay for it?

If you cannot totally avoid it, you might be able to get a better deal if you buy your coverage with a sigle upfront payment. You should get a discount on the price, and you may even be able to roll this into your mortgage. But since you will simply be financing the discounted premium, instead of making premium payments every month, it may work out better for you.

We used to hear a lot about 80/20 loans. These existed to help borrowers get into a home with 0 down payment, but also to avoid PMI. Since the first lender is only lending 80%, they were satisfied that the risk was lower. A year or two ago, these were very common. But with tougher lending rules now, they are hard to qualify for.

The simplest way to avoid paying PMI is to have a 20% down payment. If you do not have it, it may still make sense to go ahead with your purchase. But you may want to consider this decision. If you do not have the down payment for a $250,000 home, it might be a better idea to find a $150,000 home or just keep renting until you have more money saved. You will have a lot of costs associated with your new home purchase, and you want to make sure you have enough of a budget to cover everything.

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