Refinance or HELOC?

[Justin Mespelt]

Ok, I need opinions and advice. Here's the situation: I bought my first home June 2013. Got a great deal, put a lot of cleanup and work into it, and thanks to a hot Portland market I would conservatively estimate the home to be $240k (could be as high as 260k, we are getting like 2% appreciation per month in some areas here). I owe $144k, so conservative equity over $90k. PMI at $90/month until 2022.

In the next 2-5 years my wife and I would like to move to a different area where we would like our kid to go to school. What is my best strategy, what would you do? My current thought process is to get an appraisal and setup a HELOC for down payment use. However, I could refinance at the same time, get a slightly lower interest rate (currently 3.875) and drop PMI. But if I happen to find our next home soon, refinance fees would be wasted. I could also keep my current home as a rental, but the numbers wouldn't work well (could rent for 1500-1700 I think). Online calc estimates make me think after refinance my monthly PITI would drop from 1150 to a bit over 1000 with the PMI removal and interest rate reduction.

And for those with key word alerts setup, any recommendations for refinance / HELOC providers in Portland Oregon? And any wholesale guys that might pick up homes is Sandy from time to time, get in touch please :)