Call your mortgage and ask as guidelines have changed. They may simply require an appraisal. Some require 12-24 months minimum. Odds are you would not get the same rate if you refinanced and the savings could be minimal. Today's rate from TD Bank is 4.335% for a 30YR jumbo.

Pmi rules have changed quite a bit over the last 18 months making them much tougher. You are definitely going to have to dig through your loan documents to find out the precise wording, but I'm pretty sure valuation and prepayments don't count for the 78% and that "AND 60 months" has become non-negotiable.

YMMV

The requirements for removing PMI are probably in your loan documents. I had PMI removed 2 years ago and the requirements for us were:

1) The LTV had to be at least 78%

2) The appraisal had to be greater than or equal to the purchase price.

If you pay for 60 months PMI will be removed automatically, but you can get it removed early if you pay down a portion of the mortgage or if property values increase. Your best bet would be to call your bank and talk with them about it or to read through your loan documents.

You have to reach 78% on the initial amortization schedule IIRC, so it doesn't matter what it appraises at. Your only option to get rid of PMI is to refi through another company.

Well, an appraisal is around $500, so that's your cost to find out.

Husband and I re-fied our house last year and knocked our interest rate down to 3.85% which is awesome. It's a jumbo loan, so to re-fi, we had to agree to PMI since we weren't at 78% LTV. With our payments over the last year and a sharp jump in market appraisal values (We're in the Rosemont/Beverly Hills area of Alexandria City), with a decent fair appraisa, we should be looking at somewhere in the realm of 70-74% LTV. We'd LOVE to knock off the nearly $500 PMI payment each month but when I looked online it said that it had to be 78% LTV AND 60 months payment.

Thoughts?