re: Is mortgage refinancing worth looking into for me?

You would likely want to refinance the HELOC in. Just guessing the rate is much higher than 3.5ish you should be able to get. What's the value of the house? Out of curiosity, how did you pick up a 40k HELOC 1 year into the mortgage?

On another note, check out this other thread going on... MT Thread

Thinking about it, there's likely going to be at least one more "freak out" by the mortgage market. If you can hold off before the refi, there's really only 3 scenarios that could happen: 1) rates go up (not likely) 2) rates meander 3) rates continue to fall. Bond market says they'll fall so that's how I'd bet.