Sensible default. Modify inputs above to match your situation.
Last reviewed September 2026
Home affordability calculator. Income, debts, down payment, and rate in. An estimated price range out, using standard debt-to-income guidelines.
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Enter your income, debts, and down payment. We work backward from a standard debt-to-income guideline to a maximum monthly payment, then convert that into an estimated home price, including property tax, insurance, and PMI, not just principal and interest.
How this number is calculated
We start from your gross monthly income and apply the debt-to-income guideline you picked. Conservative caps your housing payment at 28% of income and your total debt (housing plus everything else) at 36%, using whichever is lower. Flexible drops the separate housing cap and allows total debt up to 43% of income, which is closer to what many lenders use today for a stronger borrower profile.
That gives a maximum monthly housing payment. From there, we subtract your property tax, insurance, and PMI estimates to find how much is left for principal and interest, then run that number through the standard mortgage amortization formula in reverse to find the loan amount, and divide by your down payment percentage to reach a home price.
Because property tax and PMI both depend on the home price we are solving for, and the home price depends on them, the calculator resolves this in a short loop: guess a price, compute tax and PMI, refine the price, repeat until the numbers settle. Every result on this page has been checked by taking the resulting loan amount and running it back through the standard forward mortgage payment formula, confirming it reproduces the same monthly payment we started from, to the cent.
Why your down payment changes everything
A bigger down payment does two things at once: it shrinks the loan you need for the same home price, and once it clears 20%, it removes PMI from the payment entirely, freeing up more of your monthly budget for principal and interest instead. Both effects push the affordable price higher. A smaller down payment does the opposite, and on top of that, more of the home's value has to come from a loan that also carries a monthly PMI charge.
Try raising the down payment above 20% on this calculator's default scenario and watch the PMI row disappear along with the jump in estimated price.
What PMI is, and when it goes away
Private mortgage insurance protects the lender, not you, when a conventional loan starts with less than 20% down. It is added to your monthly payment until your loan balance drops to 80% of the original home value, at which point you can request removal, with automatic removal required at 78% if you are current on payments. This calculator estimates PMI as a flat annual rate against the loan balance at the moment you buy; it does not model the payment dropping once PMI ends partway through the loan. See the Mortgage Payment Calculator for the full PMI drop-off timeline on a specific loan.
Why property tax and insurance swing the number so much
Property tax is set locally, not federally, and effective rates range from under 0.3% of assessed value in the lowest states to over 2% in the highest. On an identical income and down payment, that difference alone can change what home price you qualify for by tens of thousands of dollars, because every extra dollar of tax or insurance is a dollar that cannot go toward principal and interest under a fixed debt-to-income ceiling. Insurance varies too, particularly in coastal, wildfire, and flood-prone areas. This calculator uses your own entered rate and dollar figure rather than guessing your state, so the more accurate your inputs, the more accurate the estimate.
A worked example
Leave the calculator on its defaults: $85,000 annual income, $400 a month in existing debts, 10% down, 7.0% interest, a 30-year term, 1.0% property tax, $150 a month insurance, the Conservative guideline, and the 0.5% PMI default. Gross monthly income is $85,000 / 12, or $7,083.33. The 28% housing cap allows $1,983.33 a month; the 36% total-debt cap allows $7,083.33 × 0.36 minus the $400 in debts, or $2,150.00. The lower of the two, $1,983.33, is the maximum PITI payment.
Working through the property tax and PMI loop lands on an estimated maximum home price of about $254,769: a $229,292 loan, a $25,477 down payment, and a monthly payment of roughly $1,525 in principal and interest, $212 in property tax, $150 in insurance, and $96 in PMI, totaling the same $1,983 we started from.
What this calculator does not account for
This is not a loan pre-approval and does not check your credit score, employment history, assets, or a lender's specific underwriting overlays, all of which can move the real number up or down. It does not model closing costs, a conforming loan limit or jumbo pricing, state-specific property tax tables, first-time homebuyer assistance programs, or an adjustable-rate mortgage. Property tax and insurance are the figures you enter, not a lookup by state or county. Treat the result as a starting estimate for the conversation with a lender, not a final number.
Methodology and sources
The maximum monthly housing payment (PITI) is the lower of the front-end limit (gross monthly income × the guideline's housing percentage, Conservative only) and the back-end limit (gross monthly income × the guideline's total-debt percentage, minus existing monthly debts). Property tax and PMI both depend on the home price being solved for, so the calculator resolves the circular relationship with a fixed-point iteration: estimate a home price, compute tax as price × tax rate and PMI as loan × PMI rate, subtract both plus insurance from the max PITI to find principal and interest, convert that to a loan amount, convert the loan to a home price using the down payment percentage, and repeat until the numbers stop moving. The loan-to-payment conversion uses the same standard fixed-rate amortization formula already used on the Mortgage Payment Calculator, M = P[r(1+r)^n] / [(1+r)^n - 1], solved for P instead of M.
Every computed result on this page was independently checked by taking the solved loan amount and running it forward through that same formula to confirm it reproduces the target principal-and-interest payment to the cent, on every scenario tested.
It depends on your gross income, your existing monthly debts, your down payment, your interest rate, and the debt-to-income guideline a lender applies. This calculator works backward from your income and debts to a maximum monthly housing payment, then converts that payment into a loan amount and a home price. There is no single answer that applies to everyone; two people with the same income can qualify for very different amounts depending on their debts and down payment.
It is a traditional guideline used in conventional mortgage underwriting: your housing payment should generally stay at or under 28% of your gross monthly income, and your total debt payments, housing included, at or under 36%. It is a conservative rule of thumb, not a law, and many lenders and loan programs qualify borrowers well above it.
The 43% debt-to-income figure is offered here as a common, more flexible industry guideline, not as a current federal requirement. The original Ability-to-Repay/Qualified Mortgage rule did cap General QM loans at a 43% debt-to-income ratio starting in 2014, but the CFPB's own December 2020 rule change removed that hard 43% limit for General QM loans and replaced it with price-based thresholds. Many lenders still use figures around 43% as an internal guideline, which is why it remains a useful second scenario here.
Four things move the ceiling independently of your income: existing debt (every dollar of monthly debt payment is a dollar less available for housing), down payment size (a bigger down payment both shrinks the loan you need and can remove PMI once it clears 20%), the interest rate (a higher rate buys less loan for the same monthly payment), and which debt-to-income guideline you pick. Try the Flexible guideline or a smaller monthly debt figure above and watch the estimate move.
Disclaimer. FigureNerd calculators are educational tools designed to support your decision-making. We are not licensed CPAs, attorneys, or financial planners. Results are directional and may help prompt consultation with a qualified professional. Tax, legal, and financial outcomes depend on individual circumstances. This calculator is designed to estimate a home price range you may qualify for based on standard debt-to-income guidelines. It is not a loan pre-approval and carries no guarantee of any mortgage terms or commitment to lend. Actual qualification depends on your credit score, employment history, assets, and lender-specific criteria. Property tax and insurance figures are estimates and may differ significantly from your actual costs. Consult a licensed mortgage professional before making any home-buying decision.