Frequently asked questions
These cover the 28/36 rule, the difference between front-end and back-end DTI, and why this calculator is a planning tool rather than a lender approval.
FAQ
How much house can I really afford on my income?
A common starting point is the 28/36 rule: your total monthly housing payment (principal, interest, taxes, insurance, PMI, and HOA) should be no more than 28% of your gross monthly income, and your total monthly debt payments — housing plus car loans, student loans, credit card minimums, and any other recurring debt — should be no more than 36% of gross monthly income. This calculator takes your income, debts, and housing-cost assumptions and finds the home price where the resulting monthly payment exactly fits those DTI constraints. The tighter of the two rules (front-end or back-end) is what actually caps your affordability.
FAQ
What is the 28/36 rule?
The 28/36 rule is a classic lender and financial-planning heuristic. The '28' is the front-end DTI: your mortgage payment shouldn't exceed 28% of your gross monthly income. The '36' is the back-end DTI: your mortgage payment plus all your other monthly debt payments shouldn't exceed 36% of gross monthly income. It's a conservative target — real lenders will often approve higher ratios, especially on FHA loans — but it's a healthy ceiling for most households. This tool defaults to 28/36 and offers two preset buttons for moderate (30/40) and aggressive (33/45) targets if you want to stretch.
FAQ
What's the difference between front-end and back-end DTI?
Front-end DTI measures only your mortgage payment (principal, interest, taxes, insurance, PMI, HOA) as a percentage of your gross monthly income. It answers 'how much of my paycheck goes to housing?' Back-end DTI adds in your other monthly debt payments — car loans, student loans, credit card minimums, personal loans — and measures the total as a percentage of gross income. It answers 'how much of my paycheck goes to all my debts combined?' Back-end is usually the binding constraint for households with significant existing debts; front-end is usually the binding constraint for households with few or no debts. This calculator shows which one is currently limiting your affordability.
FAQ
Does this calculator replace a lender pre-approval?
No. This is a planning estimate, not a commitment. A real pre-approval from a lender depends on your credit score, employment history, cash reserves, loan program (conventional, FHA, VA, USDA), loan-level price adjustments, debt-to-income overlays, and lender-specific underwriting rules that vary widely. Two lenders can quote very different pre-approvals on the same borrower on the same day. Use this calculator to frame your search — to know roughly what price range is realistic before you start looking at listings — and then get a real pre-approval from a lender once you're ready to shop.
FAQ
How much does the down payment change what I can afford?
A larger down payment increases your affordable home price in two ways: it reduces the loan amount you need at any given price, and it can eliminate PMI (private mortgage insurance, typically required when your loan exceeds 80% of the home's value). PMI adds roughly 0.3–1.2% of the loan amount annually to your monthly payment, so crossing the 20%-down threshold can meaningfully increase your buying power even if the dollar amount of the down payment isn't dramatically bigger. This tool's down payment sensitivity row shows three affordable-price figures side by side at your current, minus, and plus $10,000 in down payment so you can see the effect immediately.
FAQ
Is anything I enter here stored or sent anywhere?
No. Everything runs in your browser. Your income, debts, and other inputs are never logged, stored, or transmitted to Everyday Tools Hub or anywhere else. The affordability figures are computed locally and the page makes no network requests for the calculation.