The Calculator App
Home Affordability Calculator
Estimate a comfortable, moderate, and stretch home price from income, debts, and cash. This is a planning tool, not a lender approval.
$387,463
Illustrative moderate price using the default planning ratios, a 6.48% rate assumption, and the mortgage calculator’s payment engine. Not a quote. The interactive calculator replaces this summary in the browser.
How much house can I afford?
Affordability here means a home price whose estimated monthly housing cost fits the budget for the scenario you select, and whose cash to close fits the cash you choose to limit. Principal and interest come from the same fixed-rate mortgage engine as the mortgage calculator. Taxes, insurance, mortgage insurance, HOA, and other housing costs are added on top.
What is debt-to-income ratio?
The front-end figure is housing divided by the gross monthly income used in the scenario. The back-end figure adds the debt payments you entered. Changing either planning ratio changes the moderate or stretch price. It does not change how a lender will underwrite a loan.
How income, debt, and cash change the price
Income raises the payment that fits a ratio. Debts shrink the payment that still fits the back-end ratio. Cash limits the price when you turn that constraint on, because the down payment, closing costs, and any reserve you keep have to be covered. If cash is the limit, raising the debt-to-income ratios will not produce a higher price.
Why closing costs and the down payment belong in the price
A payment-only estimate can point at a price you cannot fund. This calculator searches for a price that satisfies both the monthly cap and, when enabled, the cash cap. Program fees for FHA, VA, and USDA use the mortgage calculator’s dated assumptions and are labeled as such.
Questions
How much house can I afford?
This calculator estimates a price that keeps the full monthly housing cost inside a budget you set, and inside the cash you choose to make available. It is a planning range. A lender decides approval separately, using its own income rules, credit, and appraisal.
What is a debt-to-income ratio?
A front-end ratio is the housing payment divided by gross monthly income. A back-end ratio adds the monthly debt payments you enter. Gross income is not take-home pay. The ratios on this page are planning inputs, not a statement of what a lender will allow.
How does income affect the estimate?
Higher qualifying income raises the housing payment that fits a given ratio, which can raise the estimated price. Additional income and a co-borrower are included only as amounts you type. The calculator does not decide whether that income qualifies.
How does existing debt affect borrowing capacity?
Monthly debts reduce the room under the back-end ratio. Groceries, utilities, and other household costs are not added to that debt total. Household costs can still lower the comfortable housing budget when you enter them there.
Why do closing costs matter?
Cash to close includes the down payment and the costs you enter. If you have not entered a cost breakdown, the calculator uses the illustrative percentage shown on the form. That percentage is not a quote from a title company or a lender.
How does the down payment affect the payment?
A larger down payment usually means a smaller loan and a smaller principal-and-interest payment. In the conventional model, mortgage insurance drops off at a 20% down payment. The larger down payment also uses more cash up front.
Why is this different from lender approval?
Approval depends on credit, verified income, the property, and the lender’s own limits. This page does not check any of those. The stretch scenario is an upper illustration using ratios you can edit. It is not a preapproval.
Open the mortgage calculator to inspect the payment, schedule, and cash to close for a price you choose.