As I recall, you need to save 1/2 to 3/4 % for an FHA streamlined refi to be worth the effort and the cost. The costs are rolled into the new loan so nothing has to come out of pocket. It's actually a decent product.
If you have 20% or more equity in your home (don't laugh, some people still do!
), look at doing a conventional mortgage. You'll save a bit more. Only downside is that you may have to come up with some cash out of pocket, depending on how it's structured. Still worth it.
Have your lender or loan broker run the numbers for you. That's their job. Some seem reluctant to do so, for some reason or they focus exclusively on just how much $$ you'll save on the monthly payment.
A couple of cautions. If you're already 10 years into your loan, you have 20 years left on it. Whatever you do, don't refi for another 30 year note. Not a good idea. Get a new 20 year note and you may even save another handful of bucks.
Last but not least, watch out for predatory lenders. They are still out there and just because it has FHA stamped across it, doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to be a complete protection for you. READ what you're going to sign. Years ago, we did a refi and I asked the escrow officer to fax me the docs so we could read them all before we drove down the to sign anything. She said, "Oh, don't worry about it. You can read it all when you get here." I said, that would be fine.
We got to her office at about 5:00 that evening and I started reading. I read fairly fast and yet, two hours later, we were still going through the docs, she was getting calls from her kids and husband wondering where she was, she was getting visibly frustrated with me and it was coming out in her tone toward me, etc. etc. About halfway through, I put down the page I was reading and looked her in the eye and reminded her that I had asked for this paperwork ahead of time so we could avoid this problem. Her look could've killed me, I'm sure, but to her credit she did remain civil.
The real point here is that in the process, I discovered they had the interest rate wrong (too high) and they had forgotten to remove the prepayment penalty clauses which were fairly well buried. Lucky for us all, she was able to get the lender on the phone and get the corrected docs for us.
Too windy, I know. It's just after midnight, fer cryin' out load!
--Wag--