<prompt> Human: Good morning everyone, thank you for your time. I will try to make this as concise as possible. My wife and I purchased our home in 2009 short-sale at the bottom of the market. Comparable homes in our area have increased in price steadily since then. We purchased for 425 and now comparable homes in our area are selling for 600. I recently called our lender, WellsFargo to see what steps were necessary to remove the Private Mortgage Insurance since our loan amount is no longer so close to the value of the home. In short a representative that I spoke to told me that there is no way I can remove the PMI without re-financing. He said that removing PMI was an option years and years ago but that now, since the banks got burned so bad in the crash, PMI is permanent. Was this guy speaking the truth or was he just trying to coerce me into re-financing?  <response>: I did have to do a complete re-fi to get rid of my PMI. In my situation it was a really good thing to go forward. I was 5 years into a 30 mortgage, I was able to re-fi down to a 20 year with a better interest rate and no PMI. So shaving 5 more years off the mortgage, the interest I saved, and losing the PMI all made it worth while for me. 