SALT
Scorpio Bulkers Inc.
stock NYSE

funny story - I used to never itemize (I have very low mortgage rate) but I did in 2025 for the first time ever, mostly due to the expansion of SALT (I live in CA where state taxes are what they are). OP has high mortgage interest rate, and if the house is expensive, it may make sense for them to itemize.
A nitpicking counter-argument to my own argument - I think one should only consider the difference between itemized deduction AND standard deduction, because if mortgage didn't exist, they would have gotten that deduction anyways.
I agree with you getting to 20% to drop PMI and refinance is the right move.

exactly! depends on whether it makes financial sense for OP to itemize, depending on the size of his mortgage interest, but if he does itemize instead of standard deduction (recent SALT expansion makes it more popular), OP would have to discount the mortgage rate by their marginal tax rate, for example for 22%, it means 6.875%\*(1-0.22)=5.36% as an effective mortgage rate.
Still a bit on the higher side as mortgage rates go, but long-term investors can easily expect to get 5.4% in equities with fairly minimal risk (over say 10-20 years).
But then we have to do the same for taxable brokerage and include \~15% LTCG on liquidation in calculating the returns, so 10% returns are now effectively 8.5%. If the choice was between house payments and 401K/Roth, it would be a bit more favorable to investing routes.
The first response nailed it though - repay faster till you get to at least 20% equity, to remove PMI and for ease of refinancing if rates ever drop again.

funny story - I used to never itemize (I have very low mortgage rate) but I did in 2025 for the first time ever, mostly due to the expansion of SALT (I live in CA where state taxes are what they are). OP has high mortgage interest rate, and if the house is expensive, it may make sense for them to itemize.
A nitpicking counter-argument to my own argument - I think one should only consider the difference between itemized deduction AND standard deduction, because if mortgage didn't exist, they would have gotten that deduction anyways.
I agree with you getting to 20% to drop PMI and refinance is the right move.

exactly! depends on whether it makes financial sense for OP to itemize, depending on the size of his mortgage interest, but if he does itemize instead of standard deduction (recent SALT expansion makes it more popular), OP would have to discount the mortgage rate by their marginal tax rate, for example for 22%, it means 6.875%\*(1-0.22)=5.36% as an effective mortgage rate.
Still a bit on the higher side as mortgage rates go, but long-term investors can easily expect to get 5.4% in equities with fairly minimal risk (over say 10-20 years).
But then we have to do the same for taxable brokerage and include \~15% LTCG on liquidation in calculating the returns, so 10% returns are now effectively 8.5%. If the choice was between house payments and 401K/Roth, it would be a bit more favorable to investing routes.
The first response nailed it though - repay faster till you get to at least 20% equity, to remove PMI and for ease of refinancing if rates ever drop again.