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Comment by ijpoijpoihpiuoh | Hacker News Reader

You're not legally required to get insurance for a mortgage. But you won't have much luck finding a lender who will lend to you if you don't. I'd be surprised if this wasn't equally the case in most other countries.

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That's only true if you're putting down less than 20%. Once you're over 20% lenders don't care. I recently put 50% down on a house and did not have to get insurance. The lender said it was one of the cleanest loans they've ever done.

Is that true for homeowner's insurance? As far as I know, the 20% rule is for private mortgage insurance (PMI), which pays to the lender if you fail to make your payments. Basically an added payment because with a low down-payment, you're seen as an extra risk of default that must be insured separately.

Sorry, I meant PMI, not homeowner's insurance. The GP said "mortgage insurance" and that's what I was referring to. I absolutely have and was required to obtain homeowner's insurance to get a loan.

Don't know if that's true all the way around, put down more than 20% and had to have multiple very specific types of coverage, and they needed proof every year that the policies were renewed. Every year I held the mortgage, I got a nastygram because their system didn't do the auto-checks at the right time. Could be specific to type of home/location, though.

I've put down 20% and was required to have insurance.

I wasn't required to escrow it, but that's because I asked.

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