Enter your income, existing debts, and down payment — this works backwards from your target debt-to-income ratio to find the maximum home price, not the other way around.
The debt-to-income limit above is measured against gross income, but the payment comes out of take-home. That gap is why the second panel exists — enter your real monthly take-home (the paycheck calculator works it out) to see what the maximum actually leaves you. We computed what each DTI is worth across incomes, and the spread between 28% and 50% is 84% more house.
This tool starts from your annual income and target debt-to-income (DTI) ratio to find the maximum total monthly debt payment a lender would allow, then subtracts your existing monthly debts (car loans, student loans, credit cards, and similar) to see how much room is left for a house payment. It then solves algebraically for the one home price whose principal & interest, property tax, insurance, and HOA add up to exactly fill that remaining room — a direct closed-form calculation rather than guessing a price, computing its payment, and adjusting up or down until it fits.
Many conventional mortgage lenders cap "back-end" DTI — all monthly debts combined, including the new mortgage payment — somewhere in the 36% to 43% range, and FHA-backed loans can sometimes go higher depending on compensating factors like credit score and cash reserves. 36% is a conservative, commonly cited default and is what this calculator starts with, but your real limit depends on the lender, loan program, and your overall credit profile.
Yes — property tax, home insurance, and any HOA fee are folded directly into the affordability ceiling itself, not layered on afterward. That's the key difference from the plain Mortgage Calculator, which starts from a home price you've already chosen and computes what the monthly payment would be. This tool runs the opposite direction: it starts from your income and works backwards to the home price your budget can actually support.
PMI isn't included in this calculation. If your down payment will land under 20% of the home price, expect your real affordable price to be somewhat lower than what's shown here, since PMI is an additional monthly cost competing for the same DTI room as principal, interest, tax, and insurance. See the Down Payment Calculator, a companion tool, for a dedicated PMI estimate based on your down payment size.
Not necessarily. A lender's approved maximum reflects what you qualify for on paper, not what's comfortable month to month — it doesn't reserve anything for savings, retirement contributions, home repairs, or an emergency fund. Many buyers deliberately target a price meaningfully below the calculated ceiling, and it's worth also checking the dedicated Debt-to-Income Calculator to see exactly where a given home price would put your overall DTI before committing.
Worked example: with $90,000 annual income, $400/month in existing debts, a $40,000 down payment, 6.5% interest over 30 years, a 36% max DTI, 1.2% property tax, 0.5% insurance, and no HOA, the maximum monthly debt payment allowed is $2,300 ($90,000 ÷ 12 × 36% = $2,700, minus $400 of existing debts). Solving directly for home price gives a maximum of about $329,936, with a maximum loan amount of about $289,936 — the $40,000 down payment covers about 12.1% of that price. The estimated monthly payment (principal, interest, tax, and insurance) comes out to the full $2,300 by construction, since that's exactly the number the formula solved for.
Mortgage rates and a new housing law are both changing what "affordable" looks like in 2026 — see what's happening right now. Renting for now? The Rent Affordability Calculator applies the same income test to a monthly rent figure. The same ground is covered chapter by chapter in our book, From Paycheck to Portfolio. Buying with a VA loan? Budget for the one-off charge with the VA Funding Fee Calculator. A student loan payment is usually the single biggest non-mortgage item in the debt-to-income test above, and the plan you are on decides how large it looks — the IDR plan comparison shows the range. Eligible veterans and serving members should run the figures again as a VA loan, which drops both the deposit and the monthly mortgage insurance — the VA mortgage calculator shows the difference. Not sure which DTI to enter above? It is the input that decides the answer — we computed what each debt-to-income ratio actually buys, and on $90,000 the gap between 28% and 50% is 84% more house. Also see the Debt-to-Income Calculator for where you stand today, and the Mortgage Calculator for the full payment breakdown once you have a price in mind.