How much home can I afford?

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.

Annual gross income

Monthly debt payments

Cars, student loans, credit-card minimums

Down payment available

Comfort DTI (%)

Conventional max ~36%. Conservative buyers use 28%.

Loan assumptions

Interest rate (% APR)

Loan term (years)

Property tax (% / yr)

HOA ($/mo)

Turn this into a real pre-qualification

We'll use the numbers above for an instant estimate, then a local lender can verify it and give you a real pre-approval.

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 local lender confirms. They'll pull your credit + verify income + give you a concrete number.