FHA MIP Refund Chart 2026: How to Calculate What You're Owed When You Refinance or Sell

The Myth Baked Into the Question

Every situation is different, but this question has a consistent answer. When homeowners ask me about getting money back on FHA mortgage insurance, they usually assume selling and refinancing work the same way, and that assumption is where the confusion starts. HUD's homeowners fact sheet is specific: the upfront mortgage insurance premium, or UFMIP, refund only exists if you refinance from one FHA-insured loan into another FHA-insured loan. If you sell the house, pay off the loan outright, or refinance into a conventional mortgage, the unearned portion of your upfront premium stays with HUD.

That distinction matters because UFMIP is a substantial cost. You paid it as a percentage of the base loan amount, either out of pocket at closing or financed into the loan over the term, so you may have been paying interest on it the whole time. The honest answer on getting any back: only in one circumstance, and only inside a defined window.

How the Refund Window Actually Works

Instead of treating this as a percentage chart to look up, think of it as windows tied to when your current loan was originally insured. Loans insured furthest back keep FHA-to-FHA refund eligibility for roughly seven years. A middle tier of older loans keeps eligibility for about five years. For most FHA loans active today, the window closes after three years, and the refinance must be FHA-to-FHA to qualify at all. When AmeriSave loan officers walk borrowers through a refinance application, checking that eligibility window against the case number is one of the first things they confirm.

I bring up this structure instead of a flat percentage table on purpose. A lot of "refund chart" content online presents month-by-month percentages as a fixed, published schedule. Dig into HUD's own public documentation, and that granular table isn't something HUD makes easily citable in plain text. What's verifiable is the window structure above and the shape of the credit: it shrinks the longer you hold the loan and disappears once you're past your mark. If you're still inside your window, your loan officer can pull your exact figure. If you're past it, no chart changes the outcome.

What Happens to the Money When You Qualify

Even when you qualify, the credit works as an offset against what you owe rather than a payout you receive. The credit from your prior loan's UFMIP applies directly against the UFMIP owed on your new FHA loan at closing. Instead of paying the full upfront premium again, you pay the difference between what you'd normally owe and the credit you've earned. It reduces your closing costs or the amount financed into the new loan.

This is also where the "or sell" half of the common framing falls apart. Say you sell an FHA-financed property two years after closing and pay off the loan with the proceeds. That loan is gone, so there's no new FHA loan for a credit to apply against, and nothing gets refunded. The same is true if you refinance out of FHA into a conventional loan to drop mortgage insurance. That can still be smart, since conventional mortgage insurance is priced by credit score and down payment rather than FHA's flat rate, but it means walking away from any UFMIP refund you'd otherwise have qualified for.

Weighing the Refund Against the Bigger Premium Picture

I'd encourage anyone chasing this refund to zoom out first. If you have strong credit and real equity, you might not need to fixate on a shrinking upfront credit. If your score is lower and your equity is thinner, FHA might still be your best path regardless of the refund question.

One thing worth knowing: HUD recently cut the annual mortgage insurance premium on most new FHA loans from 0.85% to 0.55%, and that change didn't touch the upfront premium at all. If you're an early-tenure FHA borrower weighing a refinance, the ongoing monthly savings from today's lower annual rate can outweigh whatever shrinking upfront credit you'd collect. Run both numbers before deciding the refund is what should drive the decision. A loan officer at AmeriSave can walk through that comparison with you, since the refund line item is only one piece of what a refinance actually saves or costs.

Also worth flagging: the itemized deduction for mortgage insurance premiums has expired and isn't currently available. Don't build a refinance decision around a tax break you can't claim anymore.

Getting an Exact Number for Your Situation

Once you've confirmed you're inside an eligible window and refinancing FHA-to-FHA, the dollar figure is specific to your loan, so a general chart can't hand it to you precisely. Upfront premium overpayments are typically refunded automatically, within about four weeks of your new loan being endorsed for FHA insurance. If a refund doesn't show up and you believe you're owed one, you can file a manual request through FHA Connection, though that route can take up to 60 days.

Don't plan your finances around an estimate pulled from a percentage chart you found online. Ask your lender to confirm your case number's exact eligibility and figure before you assume anything.