<prompt> Human: We have our second on the way and we have decided that we want my wife to pause her career to care for the kids full-time. Well save a ton by not paying for childcare and also way less in taxes, but not enough to make up for the lost income obviously.So my thought was to replace our 1,500 monthly payment includes escrow and HOA, 15-year fixed with a lower payment:Current home:House value: 215,000Mortgage balance: 113,000HELOC balance: 16,000Payment: 1,500 with 10 years remainingNew home:House value: 150,000Balance after 50 down payment: 75,000Payment: 780 includes escrow, no HOA with 15 years remainingThis will give us some breathing room and allow us to not live like college students while were living on one income - the new mortgage payment would be about 18 of my take-home pay. We have no debt other than the current HELOC, but dont have much cash available in non-retirement accounts.Does this make sense, andor are there options I am not seeing? I am not interested in refinancing to a 30-year mortgage. We dont want to move but I cant see what else to do. Thank you in advance for any insight.EDIT 1: Thanks for the replies everyone. I think Im realizing that the costs of realtorsclosingfees may seriously offset any gains from a shorter termlower interest rate. We may consider staying, refinancing to a 30-year, and then paying down the mortgage faster once were able to.Assistant: How long is your wife planning to stay home with the kids? If you bought a cheaper home, how long until you need to move again? I dont think trading one house for another for a few years is a good solution. I would recommend you look into ways your wife can make some money while taking care of your kids. Maybe she works on the weekend or a couple nights a week. Maybe she watches a couple other kids one or 2 afternoons a week.If were talking long term, I think if your current house is one you want to stay in for a long time and the cheaper house is one you would be looking to leave in a couple years then its better to look at ways to stay in the house. I think refinancing to a 30 year could be a reasonable option if you make a plan to accelerate payments in 5 years when the kids are in school.Human: It would be for five years or so, until both kids are in school and she is back to working full time. Her working nightsweekends is a possibility that we have talked about. We might try it down the road but I dont want to have to depend on that in case it puts too much stress on our relationship. It would just be nice side money. We like our house but we dont absolutely love it, and it may not fit our needs in five years anyway. I actually did consider refinancing to a 30 year and then seriously accelerating payments in five years, precisely as you suggested. I decided the wasted interest money would be worse than the pricehassle of moving but I dont have hard numbers. Is my assumption wrong on that? Thanks for replying.  <response>: Buying and selling houses is prohibitively expensive. You will lose thousands in closing costs, home inspections, attorney fees etc. I would not change houses if you plan on changing houses again in 5 years. 