When you refinance a mortgage to get a lower rate, do you start back at the?

While your loan term resets to 30 years if you do a 30-year refi, remember that you are only refinancing the amount you still owe not the full mortgage amount. So if you originally borrowed $200k to purchase a $250k home, and owed $175k at the time you refinance, you are only refinancing the $175k still on the original mortgage. So the new mortgage will be $175k at a lower rate, meaning you do not lose any equity. So if your home value is still $250k, you will still have $75k in equity after you refinance.

Lets say you have a 30 year mortgage for $100,000 (assume home value is $200,000). In 5 years, you will have paid down the principal by lets say $15,000, meaning you now have $115,000 equity in the home. You don't need another loan for $100,000, so you just take out one to covers the balance of $85,000.

"I am concerned about losing the gap between what I owe and what my house is worth." You need to find a search engine and look up "Refinance 101." I don't think you really understand the process here.

Most people who have paid a decent portion of the loan term will either:

a. get a loan for a shorter period = the lowest you can probably go to is 20 years, so you might actually end up with a higher payment due to the shortened period.

b. pay the loan faster. If you have already made 60 payments, you would pay 2.5 extra payments per year to make up for the loan extension.

Yes. With a 30-year term, you have 360 payments and 180 payments with a 15-year term.

Yes, the term starts over.