Home Affordability Calculator

Ask five different people “how much house can I afford” and you’ll probably get five different answers — a lender’s pre-approval letter, a real estate agent’s rule of thumb, a budgeting app’s estimate, and your own gut feeling about what payment wouldn’t keep you up at night. Our Affordability Calculator exists to cut through that noise with one number based on your actual income, debts, and today’s mortgage rates, rather than a generic rule that may not fit your situation.

Rates matter more here than most people expect. As of early August 2026, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate is sitting around 6.80%, though it’s been bouncing between roughly 6.65% and 6.9% over the past few weeks depending on the day and the data source. That half-point of daily noise can shift what you qualify for by tens of thousands of dollars in home price, which is exactly why a generic “3x your salary” rule falls apart in a market like this one.

What “Affordable” Actually Means to a Lender

Lenders don’t just look at your income — they look at your income relative to your debt. This is the debt-to-income ratio (DTI), and it’s the backbone of almost every affordability decision, whether it’s coming from a calculator or an underwriter. Most conventional lenders lean on a version of the classic 28/36 rule:

These aren’t hard laws — FHA and VA loans in particular tend to be more flexible on the back-end ratio, especially for borrowers with strong credit or compensating factors like large savings reserves. But they’re a good gut-check before you run the numbers: if your current debt load already eats up a big chunk of your paycheck, the home price a lender approves you for may be lower than what a simple income multiple would suggest.

What the Calculator Is Actually Doing With Your Numbers

Behind the scenes, the affordability calculator is solving a fairly simple budgeting problem in reverse — instead of starting with a home price and calculating your payment, it starts with the payment you can comfortably handle and works backward to a price range. It typically needs:

• Gross annual income — before taxes, since that’s the figure lenders use
• Monthly debt obligations — car payments, student loans, minimum credit card payments
• Available down payment — both the dollar amount and how it affects your loan-to-value ratio
• Interest rate and loan term — even a quarter-point difference changes your buying power noticeably
• Estimated property tax and insurance — these get bundled into your monthly housing payment, not paid separately

Quick example: A household earning $95,000 a year with $500 in monthly debt payments and a 10% down payment might qualify for a home in the $310,000–$340,000 range at today’s rates — but that same household could clear $370,000+ if rates drop a point, or less if their existing debt load is higher. The only way to know your actual number is to run it.

Why Your Number Moves With the Rate Environment

It’s worth understanding why affordability estimates feel like they’re shifting under your feet lately. Rates have been unusually volatile through the first half of 2026 — 30-year rates have moved as low as roughly 6.66% and briefly spiked toward 6.9%+ within the same month, partly driven by broader economic pressures on Treasury yields. That kind of swing can change your maximum affordable home price by 3–5% in either direction without you doing anything differently. If you got a pre-approval a few months ago, it’s worth rerunning your numbers rather than assuming it still holds.

Choosing the Right Loan Type Changes the Math

Affordability isn’t just about the home price — it’s about which loan program you’re using to get there, since each one treats down payment, mortgage insurance, and DTI limits differently.

• If you’re putting down less than 20% and want to keep upfront cash low, it’s worth comparing your numbers against our FHA Loan Calculator, since FHA loans allow smaller down payments and more flexible credit requirements in exchange for mandatory mortgage insurance.
• If you’re a veteran, active-duty service member, or eligible spouse, the VA Loan Calculator is worth checking before anything else — VA loans often allow 0% down and skip mortgage insurance entirely, which can meaningfully raise what you can afford.
• Once you have a home price and loan amount in mind, our Amortization Calculatorshows exactly how your payment splits between principal and interest over time, which matters if you’re deciding between a 15-year and 30-year term.

Still Deciding Between Renting and Buying?

Affordability calculators assume you’ve already decided to buy, but that’s not always the obvious choice — especially in a market where rates hover near 6.8% and home prices in many metro areas remain elevated. If you’re weighing a specific monthly payment against what you’d pay in rent for a comparable place, our Rent vs. Buy Calculator factors in appreciation, opportunity cost, and how long you plan to stay, which often matters more to the decision than the monthly payment alone.

After You Know What You Can Afford

Once you’ve got a realistic price range, a few next steps make sense:

• Get pre-approved, not just pre-qualified — pre-approval involves actual document verification and carries more weight with sellers.
• Stress-test the payment against a rate a point higher, in case you don’t lock in immediately.
• Revisit the numbers if rates move — given how much rates have shifted week to week this year, it’s worth rerunning the calculator before you make an offer, not just at the start of your search.
• If you already own and rates drop, run your current loan through our Refinance Calculator to see whether a new rate would actually save you money after closing costs.

None of these numbers are guarantees — actual approval depends on your full financial picture and a lender’s underwriting. But going in with a realistic range, built from your actual income and debt rather than a rule of thumb, puts you in a much stronger position than guessing.