I have a mortgage, but this is an area of life that I'm
not much up on. I heard a bit on a consumer show yesterday
about (and I think I got this right) a "no closing cost home
equity refinance." A woman caller asked about this and the host
said she should consider one; and her situation was that she only
had a principal now of about $17k, with only about 42 months
left on it, with an interest rate of 7%. He said something about
her being able to get a refi at around 4% at present, and something
about it probably staying at that level for most of the time she
had left, with it possible going up later, etc.

This got me to thinking. My situation is that I have a principal
of about $35k, with about 8½ years left (I've been paying an extra
$50/month for the past 3½ years onto the principal). My fixed rate
is 7.375%, and this was a 15-year mortgage (I made a pretty big
down payment, btw). The amount I borrowed was only $45k.
So, can some of you here enlighten me some on this? I figured it's
better to get advice from ordinary consumers and homeowners than
to start calling lenders. Heck, some of you are probably experts
on this. Thanks to anyone who wants to give useful and accurate feedback.
Should I consider looking into this?

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O. McNatt