I am a loan officer, but my company does not lend directly to borrowers, but rather we go through mortgage brokers, so all I can do is recommend some other brokers to folks depending on your situation.
Depending on your credit score, you can get 100% loans with no PMI all day long and for decent rates too. FHA's insurance is called MIP or mortgage insurance premium. Since you pay an upfront premium at closing as well as a monthly, you can get a partial refund if you sell or refi. Don't forget to ask about this.
I've never ever done a loan with PMI. It's simply unnecessary. We will do 100% with no PMI for a full doc. loan with a minimum 600 FICO score. We'll do that for stated income loans with a min. 640 FICO. There are a ton of other companies who do this stuff, though most are tightening up their guidelines right now due to repurchases for poor performance.
If you have a chunk of equity from your last house to put into your next one, 5-10% down will get you an even better rate. But what a lot of folks around here do is rent out their old place and get their next one with 100% financing. If you rent out your old place, most lenders will count 75% of your rental income as income to offset the cost of the mortgage on that property. If you can rent your place for 25% more than your mortgage is running you, it's a wash.
I don't know what I'll do for my next house. I put 20% down on this one, but will probably keep it and rent it out, get a 100% loan for my next one and then figure it out before my next ARM expires. BTW, the average life of a 30 yr. fixed loan is 7 years. So unless you're retired or 100% positive you'll never move, I would never get anything longer than a 7 or 10 yr. ARM.
Oh, we also offer 40 and 50 yr. amortization as well as interest only. Lots of options out there. FHA is WAY behind the curve on this and they know it. HUD was a client of mine at my last job and they have been planning a big
PR push on new FHA products for a while, still haven't gotten it off the ground.