Your real budget,
based on what lenders actually do.
Lenders use a debt-to-income ratio (DTI) — your total monthly housing + debt obligations divided by your gross monthly income. Most conventional loans cap DTI at 36%. Use this calculator to see what that translates to in home price.
Cars, student loans, credit-card minimums
Conventional max ~36%. Conservative buyers use 28%.
Loan assumptions
The 28/36 rule
The two ratios every lender checks.
Conventional mortgage underwriting uses two DTI thresholds. Front-end DTI is your housing payment alone (PITI: principal + interest + tax + insurance) divided by gross monthly income. Most lenders cap this at 28%.
Back-end DTI is housing + ALL other monthly debt (car payments, student loans, credit-card minimums, alimony) divided by gross monthly income. Cap is typically 36% for conventional loans, 43% for FHA, up to 50% in some VA configurations.
Why both matter: a buyer with high income but lots of consumer debt may pass front-end but fail back-end. A buyer with low income but no other debt may pass back-end but fail front-end. Lenders need both clear.
This calculator enforces both: the front-end housing-only cap is fixed at 28% (conventional standard); the back-end cap is the comfort DTI slider you control. The binding constraint is whichever is lower at your inputs. Lower the comfort DTI slider for a more conservative budget, or raise it (up to 43% for FHA-style approval) to see what aggressive financing allows.
Confirm your real budget
An affordability calculator screens — a pre-qualification from a REHL-vetted lender confirms. They'll pull your credit + verify income + give you a concrete number.
Try the full payment math → Mortgage calculator