Well, my queries about homeowner insurance haven't yielded much. I contacted a broker who was initially shocked at how much we pay, but then looked into it and couldn't find a more attractive option.

My current agent gave me a quote with a lower replacement value and lower sewer coverage, but he also added a new option called "limited matching of undamaged property" for $100 per year to the quote, so the difference was virtually nothing.

However, I wrote to him saying I liked his quote except for that, and the identity insurance $45 per year, which is unchanged. If he took those away, and with the reduced replacement value, It would reduce our payment about $25 per year. Annually it would go from $4274.69 to $4037.59.

I also contacted our real estate agent for refinance broker recommendations and she gave me two glowing reviews with email addresses. I emailed the first one explaining our situation.

I don't think we'd get much of a break from the 3.5% rate. But if we saved $25 on our homeowner insurance, eliminated the $262.89 mortgage insurance, and got rid of the shortage makeup (by paying it off before the refi, $2000 or so), even without an interest rate reduction our payment could go down to $2625.34. That's $476.60 less per month! The savings on the last four months of 2016 could almost make up for having to pay off the shortage in a lump sum.

So that's interesting. We'll see what the mortgage broker says!