House affordability calculator
See the home price your income and debts can realistically support, not just what a lender might approve.
Your income and debts
Down payment and loan terms
Ongoing costs
Target debt-to-income ratio
What you can afford
House Affordability Calculator
Why “how much will a lender approve me for” is the wrong question
A mortgage pre-approval tells you the maximum a lender is willing to hand you, based on their risk models and underwriting rules. It says almost nothing about whether that payment actually fits comfortably into your life. Lenders routinely approve people for more house than they’d be smart to buy — that’s not a conspiracy, it’s just a different question with a different answer than “what should I actually spend.”
This calculator works backward from your real numbers — income, existing debts, and a debt-to-income ratio you choose — to find a home price that fits your budget, not just what a lender’s formula would sign off on. The default target of 36% is intentionally more conservative than what many lenders allow (often 43-45%), because a smaller share of income going to housing leaves more room for the rest of life: savings, emergencies, the stuff that doesn’t show up in a mortgage application.
Why property tax makes this trickier than it looks
Most simple affordability tools ignore the fact that a bigger home price means a bigger property tax bill, which eats into the budget you have left for the mortgage payment itself. This calculator solves that properly — the math accounts for the fact that a higher home price simultaneously means a higher loan amount and a higher tax bill, both competing for the same fixed monthly budget. Skip that step, and an affordability estimate can overstate what you can actually afford, sometimes by a meaningful amount depending on your local tax rate.
What this number deliberately leaves out
Closing costs aren’t in this figure — budget an additional 2-5% of the home price for those, on top of your down payment. Maintenance costs aren’t in here either; lenders don’t include them in DTI calculations, but they’re real, ongoing, and worth planning for separately (most guidance suggests 1% of home value per year as a rough estimate). And there’s no cash reserve built in — a comfortable affordability number leaves you with money left over after closing, not exactly zero.
Should I use my actual target DTI or the lender-max DTI? Use whatever number actually reflects the life you want to live. If 36% feels tight but 43% feels genuinely uncomfortable, there’s nothing wrong with landing somewhere in between and adjusting the slider until the resulting home price feels right, not just approvable.
Does a bigger down payment always mean I can afford more house? Yes, but with diminishing returns once PMI is no longer a factor — past 20% down, additional down payment money reduces your loan (and therefore your P&I) directly, but it might do more for your finances sitting in savings or investments instead, depending on your broader goals.