Thought about refinancing at the time, but didn't do it before rates exploded.

I think about this often, its really just running the numbers - if you borrow 100k at an 8% interest rate, will the investment get you more than an 8% return?

Some people only want 10-20% of their outstanding lines/debt balances available while the other 80-90% to be in fixed rate notes.

I am a resident physician in dermatology, during  medical school I bought a property in Denver with an Interest rate of 2.75% (COVID rates lol) with the goals of renting it out when I moved onto the residency.

The interest rate isn't that huge of a difference between the 15 and 30 so worst case scenario if you have the 30 year option is you start paying it down on a 15 year timeline - sure you'll pay a little more in interest over the 15 years, but it will have been worth it if you bought another house.

I will say that during that time, the HELOC interest rates were very low.  

When it comes to managing your mortgage, most homeowners are familiar with refinancing as a way to lower monthly payments or take advantage of better interest rates.

Where to get the most recent and accurate data for things like:Unemployment dataPopulation growthJob diversity and top employers in the areaVacancy rates (eg huduser.org)Property taxes and jnsurance costsI saw bp pro and reventure and a bunch of other websites provide some of this data, but i wonder how accurate and recent it is.

For an example, we Googled, "hourly rate for handyman Austin, TX" and got this:AI Overview: As of January 2025, the average hourly rate for a handyman in Austin, Texas is between $25 and $25.28.

Rates will at some point allow you to refinance.