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How much house can you afford? Uses the 28/36 lender rule with live mortgage rates.
House Affordability Calculator uses a binary-search solver to find your maximum home price where PITI (principal, interest, property tax, insurance) stays within the 28% front-end and 36% back-end DTI guidelines.
Determine how much house you can responsibly afford using the 28/36 lender rule. Factors in your income, debts, down payment, mortgage rate, property tax, insurance, and HOA.
Enter your gross annual income and monthly debt payments.
Add your down payment, rate, and tax/insurance estimates.
See your max affordable home price and full PITI breakdown.
Binary search iterates over home price until PITI payment ÷ gross income ≤ 28% and total monthly debts ÷ gross income ≤ 36%. Property tax and insurance scale with home price. Live 30-year mortgage rate is imported from FRED via the existing mortgage data script.
Housing payments (PITI + HOA) should stay under 28% of gross monthly income, and total debt service (housing + auto + credit cards + student loans) under 36%. This is the standard lender risk threshold.
FHA loans accept up to 43% DTI, and some lenders go to 50% with compensating factors (strong credit, large down payment, savings cushion). But stretching DTI cuts deeply into emergency savings.
Only if their income will be on the loan application. Both incomes on the loan = both debts considered. One person on the loan = only that person's income and debts count.
Principal, Interest, Taxes, Insurance — the full monthly cost of owning a home with a mortgage. HOA and PMI are added on top.