Si Sam. In lieu of your value going down, if you plan on staying in your house for the long term, I think investing back into your house the funds required to do a 20 year loan would be prudent. You are attacking your mortgage on two fronts. 1) You would be reducing your interest rate and, 2) You would be reducing your term. In addition, your new payment will be very close to your current payment. Big picture: In doing so you are eliminating a ton of interest you would have to pay the lender. Sam, to the contrary...if you have no intention of staying, consult with a realtor and strategize on your options to sell. I have a good realtor contact in Clearwater, FL. Feel free to call/e-mail me if you have any questions.Sincerely,Matthew RundleWestin Mortgage(909) 630-2029 DirectE-mail: matt.rundle@westinmortgage.comNMLS#: 298953

The best advice I can give you is to contact a local mortgage broker, not a bank, and have then put your particular scenario in a "total cost analysis" calculator. This will give you a clear comparison of which product will best fit your particular situation. based on your example, there is no doubt you can save if you refinance, the real question is what term?? 20 year loans are usually priced the same as a 30 year loan... but based on your information provided above, you would lower your payment if you added cash to your balance and financed at 15 years, making your savings well worth it... WilliamAcres.com

Dear Clearwater -- I'm going to gladly give you the best answer here believe it or not. Remember -- cash is king and still is. At the end of the day -- he who has the gold, make the rules. Why am I saying this so blunty? Do yourself a favor -- Dont put any more money down to pay down a property that I can prove to you will decline by many many more thousands 24 months from today. Use the banks money always. This apply to you even if you plan to die in the home that you currently live in. I can go on all day about why this make perfect financial sense -- The numbers dont lie. The American Dream of home ownership needs time to recover its value literally. The biggest asset you buy now today, which is your home, is no longer your biggest investment. Evaluate it's cost over the long haul. There is a great site that can help you figure this out --- www.dinkytown.netI have programs here than can refinance you with no appraisals or with appraisals up to 125% undervalue............ and still get you the rate of at least 4% -- maybe lower. Email me at andrew@doubleamortgage.com --- Call me directly at 813 601 0221. Your Tampa Friend - Andrew Alfonso

If you have a conventional loan I think you may want to wait and see what comes of HARP 2.0 refinance in a couple of months.HARP 2.0 will not have an LTV limit like 1.0, will encompass more loan products that are held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and will allow you to "streamline" refinance to a lower rate and a shorter-term loan product (i.e. 20 or 15 year loans). At this time we are just waiting for guidelines to come from Fannie and Freddie. This could be a few months down the road though. Keep in touch with a trusted mortgage adviser in your area to keep tabs on when Fannie and Freddie finally pull the trigger.

Yes. Refinance. Call me anytime. 727-433-2299All the others who answered your question are making it way more complex than it is. Yes, refinance. Simple.Jim Sutch Sr. Loan Officer, The Mortgage Firm

Dear Clearwater It's that simple analogy that has this entire country underwater. Allot of the companies out there just want your refinance for the dollars it pays -- Just make a sound decision. Be careful of the guys that are only interested in getting you into there pipeline before Christmas. Andrew 813 601 0221

Sam,Lets look at the math. If you pay down your existing mortgage to $124,000 but continue to make the same $1,124 loan payment you will pay about $54,000 in remaining interest. Your existing loan will pay off in about 160 months because of the principal reduction. If you refinance, and make the new lower payments you will pay about the same amount of interest, $54,000. The advantage would be that you would have a $760 payment vs your current $1,124 payment.If you refinance, and make the same $1,124 payment you are making now your new 20 year loan would pay off in 141 months and you would save about $24,000 in interest. So, you can have a lower payment or save some remaining interest. (In both cases you are spending $36,000 towards a principal reduction and/or closing costs so that number is the same.) Refinaning would only make sense if you are staying in your home for a long time.That leaves the question of whether you want to put all that money into your existing home given the state of the housing market. Others have given you their opinion on that so I won't address it. Just wanted to do the math for you.