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Home Affordability Calculator

How much house you actually qualify for, given DTI rules.

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Maximum affordable home price

$372,461

$100,000 income · 36% DTI cap · 6.360% for 30 years
Max all-in / month
$2,500

PITI + HOA

Loan amount
$322,461
DTI front / back
30.0% / 36.0%

That keeps housing plus your other debts at 36% of gross income: $2,500 a month all-in on a $322,461 loan with $50,000 down.

Try a what-if

Lender max ≠ your comfort max: Lenders approve up to their DTI cap (43-45% for conventional, 50% for FHA). That's often noticeably higher than what leaves comfortable financial breathing room. A common rule of thumb is that buyers often target around 80% of the home they can qualify for — a heuristic, not a recommendation for your situation.

Your numbers

$100,000

$500/mo (car, student, cards)

$50,000

6.360% APR

Default 6.36%Freddie Mac PMMS — 30-Year Fixed Rate Mortgage Averageas of May 2026

DTI cap, term, taxes & HOA36% DTI · 30y · 1.10% tax · $1,800/yr ins.

36% (36% safe · 43% conventional · 50% FHA max)

30-year fixed

1.10% / year

$1,800

$0

Next steps

The Home Affordability Calculator reverse-solves from your income, existing debts, down payment, and the lender's back-end DTI cap to find your maximum qualifying home price. Because property tax is a % of home value (which is what we're solving for), the math is an implicit equation — solved via fixed-point iteration. The lender's max isn't your comfort max; use this as the ceiling, not the target.

How this calculator works

  1. Enter your annual gross income (pre-tax).
  2. List your existing monthly debts — car, student loans, minimum credit-card payments.
  3. Enter your available down payment and pick a DTI cap. 36% is the conservative industry guideline; 43% is the conventional-loan maximum; FHA can go higher.
  4. Set the mortgage rate (today's average 30-year fixed is sourced live), term, property tax rate, insurance, and HOA.
  5. Read the max home price + the all-in PITI at that price. A commonly-cited rule of thumb is that buyers often target around 80% of what they can QUALIFY for to leave breathing room — it's a heuristic, not a recommendation for your situation.

max_PI = income/12 × DTI_cap − existing_debts − tax(home) − insurance − HOA then max_loan = max_PI × annuity_factor

Solved iteratively because property tax depends on home value (which we're solving for). Each iteration recomputes max_PI given the current home price, derives max_loan from the standard annuity factor, and updates home_price = max_loan + down_payment. Converges in 5–8 passes.

income
Annual gross income
DTI_cap
Lender's back-end DTI cap (36% conservative, 43% conventional, 50% FHA max)
existing_debts
Sum of existing monthly debt obligations
tax(home)
Property tax as % of home value, divided by 12
annuity_factor
Standard mortgage amortization factor: r(1+r)ⁿ / ((1+r)ⁿ − 1)

Frequently asked questions

What DTI do lenders allow?

Conventional loans typically cap back-end DTI (housing + other debts) at 43-45%. Conservative budgeting uses 36%. FHA can go to 50% in some cases. The calculator lets you choose; 36% is the financially safer default.

Front-end vs back-end DTI?

Front-end = housing costs (PITI + HOA) as a % of gross income. Back-end = housing + ALL other monthly debt obligations (car, student loans, credit-card minimums) as a % of gross income. Lenders care more about back-end.

Why is my 'affordable' number lower than my pre-approval?

Lenders approve at the maximum DTI they're allowed to. That's often higher than what leaves you with comfortable financial breathing room. A common rule: the home you can afford is ~80% of the home you can qualify for.

Sources used in this calculator

Reviewed by the Money Scale editorial team. How we source our data

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