There is no such thing as a 30-year mortgage. Therre is a popular plan under which you rent your house from the bank for 15 years and then begin paying on a 15-year mortgage.
Have a banker run you an amortization table for a so-called 30-year mortgage and you'll see what I mean. At the end of the first 15 years, after making that payment every month for 180 months, you will have paid off less than 5% of your house. But, in the mean time, during those 15 years, you paid all the taxes, all the maintenance, and all the insurance, all of which doubtlessly exceed 5% of the value of the peoperty. Oh, if the value of the property went up, that is your's; but it's not really you's to keep until you sell. Until you sell, that's just paper gains (which is why the IRS doesn't tax you on it). A program under which you pay every month to live in a house but don't really accumulate any equity is called... "rent."
Real estate prices are very high right now. It is dangerous to try to "draw out" that increase in prices through any means except selling your house. If you take out value and then the prices fall, you could easily find yourself under water.
My advice: refinance to a 15-year mortgage and use any extra money that comes out to pay down principle thus lowering your monthly payment.
