•  A borrower has a 30-year loan at a rate of 5.25 percent with a balance of $100,000 on an original loan of $125,000.

The current payment (principal and interest) is $561 per month.

A new 30-year payment at 3.5 percent comes to $449.

A new 15-year payment at 2.875 percent comes to $684.

•  A borrower has a 30-year loan at a rate of 5.25 percent with a balance of $250,000 on an original loan of $275,000.

The current payment (P&I) is $1,518 per month.

A new 30-year payment at 3.5 percent comes to $1,122.

A new 15-year payment at 2.875 percent comes to $1,711.

Senner said all the concentration on lowering monthly payments has clouded the benefits of refinancing to shorten the term of a loan to 15 years.

“A comment I am hearing a lot right now is, ‘So, a 15-year loan will only raise my payment by X amount, and I can pay my loan off that much faster?' Since my customers are almost always surprised that the 15-year payment is not that much higher than what they are currently paying, I suspect that a lot of your readers would be as well,” he wrote in an email.

Readers, now you know.