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Home Affordability Calculator

Find out how much house your budget can really stretch to. Enter your income, debts, down payment and mortgage details, then press Calculate to see an affordable home price and the monthly payment behind it.

Written by TopicDrill Editorial Team·Updated June 2026

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Your finances

Fill in the details, then press Calculate.

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Home you can afford

$335,458

Affordable loan$295,458
Monthly payment (PITI)$2,300
Down payment used$40,000

Where the monthly payment goes

$2.3kper month
  • Principal & interest$1,867
  • Property tax$308
  • Homeowners insurance$125

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How the affordability calculator works

Affordability starts from your paycheck, not the listing price. The tool takes your gross income, applies a debt-to-income cap, and subtracts the debts you already pay each month. What is left is the budget available for housing. From that budget it carves out property tax and insurance, then uses the mortgage formula in reverse to find the loan, and therefore the home price, that the remaining payment can support.

The donut chart shows where each dollar of the monthly payment goes. Principal and interest usually dominate, but tax and insurance can together claim a surprisingly large slice, especially in high-tax areas.

A worked example

Take a 90,000 dollar income, 400 dollars of monthly debts, a 40,000 dollar down payment, a 6.5 percent rate over 30 years, and a 36 percent DTI cap. The housing budget works out to about 2,300 dollars a month. After tax and insurance, that supports a loan of roughly 290,000 dollars, which combined with the down payment puts an affordable home near 330,000 dollars.

Things to keep in mind

Lenders also weigh your credit score, employment history and cash reserves, so a quote may differ from this estimate. Buying at the very top of your budget leaves little room for repairs or rate changes, so many buyers aim lower on purpose. For a neutral guide to the mortgage process, see the CFPB home-buying guide. To pin down the exact monthly payment on a specific price, use our future value calculator to project the savings for your down payment first.

Frequently asked questions

How much house can I afford?

A common guideline caps your total monthly debts, including the new housing payment, at about 36 percent of your gross monthly income. This calculator applies that limit, subtracts your existing debts, sets aside room for property tax and insurance, and then works out the largest loan and home price that still fit.

What is the debt-to-income ratio?

The debt-to-income ratio, or DTI, is your monthly debt payments divided by your gross monthly income. Lenders use it to judge how much new debt you can handle. A back-end DTI of 36 percent is a conservative default, though some loan programs stretch higher for strong borrowers.

Why are property tax and insurance included?

Your true monthly housing cost is more than principal and interest. Property tax and homeowners insurance are usually collected with the mortgage payment, so they eat into the same budget. Leaving them out would overstate the home price you can afford, so the tool subtracts them before sizing the loan.

Does a bigger down payment let me buy more?

Yes. The down payment is cash that does not need to be borrowed, so it adds directly on top of the loan your income can support. A larger down payment also lowers the loan, which shrinks the monthly principal and interest and can help you avoid mortgage insurance.

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