Key Takeaways Renovating to boost your home’s value sounds like a smart way to drop PMI, but appraisals aren’t guaranteed to come in high enough. Most renovations add less to a home’s value than they cost, making it an expensive path to building equity. Paying extra toward your mortgage principal may be a more reliable way to increase equity enough for PMI removal. The collision of high home prices and high mortgage rates has made homebuying very difficult for many Americans over the past few yea ...