Home Affordability Calculator
Free home affordability calculator based on your income, debts, and down payment. See your maximum home price, comfortable price range, and full monthly payment breakdown, no signup.
Example Scenarios
$110k Household
$500/mo debts • $40k down
First-Time Buyer
$85k • 5% down • 6.75%
$500k Target Home
What income is needed?
Dual Income
$150k + $45k • 20% down
Affordability Inputs View Results
Affordability Summary
—
Target Home Payment & DTI
| Full PITI at target price | — |
| Front-end DTI at target | — |
| Back-end DTI at target | — |
Comfortable vs Lender Maximum
| Metric | Comfortable | Lender Max |
|---|---|---|
| Home price | — | — |
| Monthly PITI | — | — |
Down Payment Comparison (5% / 10% / 20%)
| Down | Price | Loan | PITI | PMI | Cash at Closing |
|---|
Debt Impact: Buying Power per Debt
| Debt | Payment | Power Lost | Price if Eliminated |
|---|
Rate Sensitivity (Comfortable Price)
| Rate Scenario | Comfortable Price | Monthly PITI |
|---|
How This Is Calculated
Affordability uses the 28/36 rule: housing PITI ≤ 28% of gross monthly income and total debts (housing + other) ≤ 36%. Price is solved backward from the max payment using M = P · r(1+r)ⁿ / ((1+r)ⁿ − 1) plus taxes, insurance, PMI, and HOA:
Everything behind the Home Affordability Calculator
Formulas, reference charts, and detailed answers — expand any section you need.
The 28/36 Rule: How Home Affordability Is Calculated
The 28/36 rule is the standard framework: housing costs (the full PITI payment) should stay at or under 28% of gross monthly income, and total debt payments including housing should stay at or under 36%. The calculator converts those percentages into a home price using your rate, term, taxes, and insurance, working backward from the payment your income supports to the price that produces it.
| Gross Annual Income | Max Housing Payment (28%) | Comfortable Price Range (7%, 10% down) |
|---|---|---|
| $80,000 | $1,867 | $240,000 to $270,000 |
| $110,000 | $2,567 | $310,000 to $335,000 |
| $150,000 | $3,500 | $430,000 to $455,000 |
| $200,000 | $4,667 | $600,000 to $615,000 |
What Income Do I Need for a Target Home Price?
| Home Price | Approx. Income Needed (comfortable, 10% down) |
|---|---|
| $300,000 | $85,000 to $95,000 |
| $400,000 | $115,000 to $130,000 |
| $500,000 | $140,000 to $155,000 |
| $700,000 | $200,000 to $215,000 |
Home Affordability Calculator: How Much House Can I Afford?
This home affordability calculator turns your income, debts, and down payment into two numbers: the maximum a lender would likely approve, and the price you can comfortably afford without becoming house poor. The gap between those figures is often $100,000 or more, and knowing both before shopping protects you from anchoring on the bigger one. Every price shown is backed by its full monthly payment, taxes, insurance, and PMI included, so the affordability answer matches the payment you would actually make.
Example: A household earning $110,000 with $500 in monthly debts and $40,000 down comfortably affords roughly a $330,000 to $335,000 home at current rates, while a lender might approve up to $440,000 or more.
What Income Do I Need to Buy a House?
Target mode answers the question in reverse: enter a home price and the calculator solves for the gross income that affords it comfortably at the 28/36 ratios, alongside the full monthly payment at that price. As a planning shortcut at current rates with 10% down, comfortable affordability requires roughly $28,000 to $32,000 of income per $100,000 of home price.
How Debt-to-Income Ratio Affects How Much House You Can Buy
DTI is the number lenders actually underwrite against. Front-end DTI is your housing payment divided by gross monthly income; back-end DTI adds every other monthly debt payment. Conventional loans commonly cap back-end DTI around 43 to 50%, but approval at the ceiling is precisely how buyers end up stretched. When back-end DTI is the binding limit, every dollar of monthly debt payment reduces the housing payment your DTI allows, debt mode shows the exact buying power each of your debts costs.
Down Payment: How Much Do I Need to Buy a House?
The 20% down payment is a benchmark, not a requirement: conventional loans go as low as 3 to 5% down and FHA loans 3.5%, with PMI applying below 20%. A larger down payment raises affordability twice, shrinking the loan and removing PMI from the payment. The comparison mode shows your price range, payment, and total cash needed at closing at 5%, 10%, and 20% down side by side, including the 2 to 5% closing costs that first-time buyers often forget to budget.
How Interest Rates Change What You Can Afford
Rates move affordability roughly 10% per percentage point: at the same monthly payment, a 1% rate increase cuts the affordable home price by about a tenth. The rate sensitivity table shows your comfortable range at rates 0.5% and 1% above and below today's input, which frames both the cost of waiting and the value of rate shopping among lenders, where quotes routinely differ by 0.25 to 0.5%.