What does re-mortgaging a house mean?

It generally means you are either renegotiating the terms of your mortgage or starting a new loan with new bank. You would do this because rates have dropped, or because you need money and and are taking a bigger loan against the house. There really is no difference in the mortgage itself other than the terms (amount, rate & duration). There is nothing different in how it is calculated.

We remortgaged our house ten years ago. We were 11 years into a 30 year mortgage with a fairly high rate. We were able to get a new mortgage that gave us $30,000 more than we owed (we used it for a home remodel), got a much lower rate, and only for 15 years. In the end our monthly payment was almost the same because of the lower rate. I only have 5 more years and I own the house outright! 4 years ahead of my original mortgage.

O.O sounds like your old mortgage had a really high interest rate.

Yeah it was pretty high. I don’t remember exactly, but it was over 10%. Now I am under 6%. I could refinance again and get a lower rate, but I wouldn’t gain anything now because I am so far into my current mortgage, and most of the interest has been paid already.