If you bought a house in recent years without a big down payment or without a second mortgage, you're probably paying for private mortgage insurance every month. But you don't have to forever.

You can qualify to cancel it if you've made enough payments, raised the value of your property with home improvements or (rarer and rarer nowadays) live in an area that is seeing strong gains in sales prices. One or more of those options can get your loan balance down to 80 percent of the value of the home when you got the loan, the magic number.

The Mortgage Insurance Companies of America, a trade group, offers these tips for canceling:

Contact your loan servicer. You should be able to find the contact information on your monthly mortgage bill. Be prepared to provide your Social Security and loan numbers.

Ask the servicer its requirements for canceling your private mortgage insurance. Let the servicer arrange for any required appraisal, the insurer association says, so you don't end up on the hook for two bills.

After you've jumped through the necessary hoops, send a written request to cancel.

Most loans taken out after July 29, 1999, will have their insurance canceled automatically once the payments equal 22 percent of the original home value. That's a federal law.

If you're getting a nongovernment loan without a down payment of at least 20 percent, lenders insist on private mortgage insurance to protect them should you go into foreclosure. It is in an effort to avoid the insurance bill that many buyers opted for two mortgages during the housing boom. Now, an increasing number of new borrowers are finding their way back to PMI - by choice or default.

Not sure whether you're paying for this insurance? Check your monthly mortgage bill or the "HUD1" form with the paperwork you signed to close the loan.

Find Jamie's blog at baltimoresun.com/ realestatewonk