How much house can I afford?
Find the maximum home price your income supports using 28/36 DTI limits, with property tax, insurance, HOA and PMI included.
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Loan amount
$272,608
87.2% LTV
Monthly housing cost
$2,239.99
PITI + HOA + PMI
Front-end DTI
28.0%
limit 28% · $2,240.00/mo
Back-end DTI
34.9%
limit 36% · $2,880.00/mo
- Principal & interest74.9%$1,678.49
- Property tax12.8%$286.56
- Home insurance6.7%$150.00
- PMI5.6%$124.95
What the monthly housing payment is actually made of at the maximum price.
| DTI rule | Front / back | Max price | Monthly PITI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | 25% / 33% | $280,744 | $1,999.99 |
| Standard (28 / 36) | 28% / 36% | $312,608 | $2,239.99 |
| Your limits | 28% / 36% | $312,608 | $2,239.99 |
| Stretched (FHA-style) | 31% / 43% | $344,472 | $2,480.00 |
| Stretch (43% back-end) | 43% / 43% | $398,904 | $2,890.00 |
Formula and working
Monthly gross income
Gross monthly = (income + co-borrower income) ÷ 12 = (96,000 + 0) ÷ 12 = $8,000.00
Front-end limit (housing only)
Housing cap = gross monthly × front-end DTI = 8,000 × 28% = $2,240.00
Back-end limit (all debt)
Housing cap = gross monthly × back-end DTI − existing debts = 8,000 × 36% − 550 = $2,330.00
Housing cost at the maximum price
PITI = P&I + tax ÷ 12 + insurance ÷ 12 + HOA + PMI P&I on $272,608 at 6.25% for 30 years = $1,678.49 tax 1.1% × $312,608 ÷ 12 = $286.56 insurance $1,800.00 ÷ 12 = $150.00 HOA $0.00 + PMI $124.95 = $2,239.99
Maximum price
price = down payment + largest loan whose PITI fits both caps solved by bisection: PITI($312,608) = $2,239.99 ≤ $2,240.00 = $312,608
The binding constraint is whichever cap is reached first — with meaningful card or car debt it is almost always the back-end ratio.
Assumptions
- Front-end DTI compares the whole housing payment to gross (pre-tax) income; back-end DTI adds every other monthly debt payment. 28/36 is the conventional US benchmark; 31/43 is closer to FHA practice, and 43% back-end, the old Qualified Mortgage cap, is still a common lender limit.
- Lenders count the minimum payment on revolving debt, not the balance. Utilities, groceries, childcare and insurance premiums other than home insurance are not counted in DTI even though they are real.
- PMI is estimated as a flat annual percentage of the loan and only applies above 80% loan-to-value. It normally falls away once the balance drops below that threshold.
- Closing costs, moving costs, maintenance, and any reserve requirement are not deducted from the down payment. Budget separately — 2% to 5% of the price is a common range for closing costs.
- Affordability from a lender’s point of view is not the same as affordability from yours. The maximum a bank will lend is a ceiling, not a target.
How a lender decides what you can borrow
Underwriting is far less mysterious than it looks. A lender takes your gross monthly income and applies two ceilings to it. The first, the front-end ratio, caps the housing payment on its own. The second, the back-end ratio, caps the housing payment plus every other debt payment you make. Whichever bites first is your limit — and this page names it explicitly rather than leaving you to guess.
The conventional benchmark is 28/36. FHA underwriting is looser, around 31/43. The Qualified Mortgage rule caps the back-end ratio at 43% for most loans that lenders want to keep saleable. All of those are in the comparison table above, run against your own income.
Why the housing figure is PITI, not the mortgage payment
Lenders test the whole cost of keeping the roof on, not just the loan:
- Principal and interest — the mortgage itself.
- Taxes — property tax, usually a percentage of assessed value, collected monthly into escrow.
- Insurance — homeowners cover, required for the life of the loan.
- PMI — private mortgage insurance, charged while the loan exceeds 80% of value. It protects the lender, not you.
- HOA or condo fees — not part of the mortgage, but counted in full because they leave your account every month regardless.
This matters enormously in high-tax jurisdictions. A 1.1% property tax rate on a 400,000 house is 367 a month — more than a fifth of the total housing payment, and enough to move your maximum price by tens of thousands.
What existing debt really costs you
The back-end ratio is where car finance and student loans do their damage. Every 100 of monthly debt payment removes 100 of housing allowance, which at a 6.25% thirty-year rate — once property tax, insurance and PMI are counted alongside the loan — is roughly 15,000 of purchase price.
| Monthly debt payments | Housing allowance left (36% back-end) | Approx. price impact |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | full 28% front-end applies | — |
| 200 | −200 | −30,000 |
| 400 | −400 | −60,000 |
| 700 | −700 | −105,000 |
| 1,000 | −1,000 | −150,000 |
Rough figures at 6.25% over 30 years with a 10% deposit and typical tax, insurance and PMI. Clearing a car loan before applying is frequently the single highest-leverage thing a buyer can do.
Lenders count minimum payments, not balances
A 12,000 card balance with a 240 minimum counts as 240, not 12,000. That has two consequences. Paying a card down without closing it reduces the minimum and improves your ratio. And consolidating short-term debt into a longer term lowers the monthly payment, which improves the ratio even though the total owed is unchanged — a legitimate tactic, but one that costs more interest overall.
What is not counted: utilities, groceries, childcare, commuting, phone bills, pension contributions, or anything else that is not a credit obligation. That is why a lender's maximum is a ceiling rather than a recommendation.
How the maximum price is solved
There is no closed-form answer, because property tax and PMI both depend on the price you are solving for. Raising the price raises the loan, which raises the interest, the tax and the PMI together. The calculator therefore uses bisection: it repeatedly halves the search interval between the down payment and a very large number, testing whether the resulting PITI fits inside both caps, until sixty iterations have narrowed the answer to well under one unit of currency. The working panel shows the test at the final price.
What this deliberately does not include
- Closing costs — commonly 2% to 5% of the price in the US, plus stamp duty or land transfer tax elsewhere. These come out of your cash, not the loan.
- Reserves — many lenders want several months of PITI left in the bank after closing.
- Maintenance — a common rule of thumb is 1% of the property value a year, and it is not optional.
- Rate movement — a one-point rise in rates cuts buying power by roughly 10%. Re-run the numbers when your rate lock is quoted.
Why this page has no form
"How much house can I afford" is one of the most commercially valuable searches on the internet, because the answer arrives attached to a person with an income figure, a savings figure and an intention to borrow several hundred thousand. Almost every calculator ranking for it exists to capture that.
This one cannot. It has no server, no form, no account and no third-party script. Your income and debts are typed into a browser tab and stay there. Turn off your network connection and the page keeps working, which is the only proof of a privacy claim that means anything.
Questions
What is the 28/36 rule?
A lender benchmark: housing costs should stay under 28% of gross monthly income (the front-end ratio) and total debt payments under 36% (the back-end ratio). Both are checked here, and the page tells you which one is capping your budget.
Does this include property tax and insurance?
Yes. The monthly figure is full PITI plus HOA fees and PMI where the loan-to-value ratio is above 80%, because that is the number a lender tests against your income — not the bare principal and interest.
Is my income sent anywhere?
No. There is no server behind this page and no lead form. Mortgage affordability pages are one of the most valuable lead sources in finance, which is exactly why this one does the arithmetic in your browser and keeps quiet.
Why does the answer drop so much when I add debts?
Card and car payments come out of the same 36% back-end allowance as your mortgage. Every 100 of monthly debt typically removes roughly 15,000–20,000 of borrowing power at current rates.
Should I borrow the maximum?
The maximum a lender will approve is a ceiling, not a target. It ignores childcare, commuting, maintenance, and the fact that property tax and insurance rise every year. Many buyers deliberately work to a 25/33 rule instead.