Home Refinancing

What better time than now to refinance your existing loan! My wife and I just refinanced our 30 year 6.000% fixed home loan to a 15 year 4.875% loan. Our previous payment was $1301 per month, including PMI and escrow. With our new 15 year loan, our payment only went up $117 to $1418 per month, and we were able to drop the PMI (the appraisal valued our house at $(yet to be determined)). Thinking about refinancing your home or car loan? With interest rates this low, now's the time to do it.
You may ask why did I refinance from a 30 year loan to a 15 year loan with a higher payment, when I could have picked another 30 year loan with a smaller monthly payment. The reasons are simple:

• We're already comfortable paying $1300 a month on our existing mortgage
• We can afford the extra $100 per month
• A 15 year loan offers a smaller interest rate
• The 15 year loan will force us to pay off the loan 10 years faster
• We're getting out of the FHA loan we currently have (which has restrictions on carrying private mortgage insurance (PMI)) and into a conventional loan, so the $60 per month that was going to PMI will no longer be an expense
  

Thoughts or comments? Post below.

UPDATE 1/27/2009: We cancelled the refinancing process, for the following reasons:

• Closing costs would have amounted to over $3500
• If we wrapped the closing costs back into our mortgage, it would take nearly 2 1/2 years to break even
• Our current plan is to pay off our non-mortgage debt first, so refinancing to focus more of our income on the mortgage was skipping a couple of steps in our plan
• We already have a fixed rate mortgage

I had to forfeit the $350 that they charged me on the first day I called and started the financing process. That's fine with me, because if we had closed, we would have owed about $3500 more in closing fees. If we had been in an adjustable rate mortgage, or planned on staying in our current home for more than 2 1/2 years, I probably would have closed the 15 year deal.