HELOC vs. Cash Out Refi

[Dave Klemarczyk]

HI everyone,

I'm a little stuck right now.

I was looking to get a HELOC on my primary residence this past summer but found that my DTI was too high (around 58%). This is mostly because of the high property taxes, which alone account for 16%. I refinanced my house just a couple of years ago to a 20-year term because I was buying in to the Dave Ramsey school of pay off debt as fast as possible. Our budget is now a little tight as my wife works a fraction of the time to stay home with our toddler which dropped our income a good amount (leading to the high DTI). If I were to cash out refi and go back to a 30 year term now I would get 25k in hand minus closing costs and the monthly payment would drop by a few bucks. The APR would go up about one percent, but I suppose that's not a big deal. Are there any other options out there as far as getting equity out of my primary to get cash in hand and start investing? Thanks.