Free Home Affordability Calculator (+ Guide)

What is a home affordability calculator?

A home affordability calculator works backward from your income to the highest home price you can carry. It's the same question as "how much house can I afford", answered with the rules lenders use.

How to use the home affordability calculator

You need your income, your other debts and your down payment.

Left empty, the rate is today's US average for a 30-year fixed, from Freddie Mac's weekly survey.

A worked example

Here's the example the calculator loads when you press Try an example: a $100,000 income, $400 a month of other debts, $60,000 down, 6.5% for 30 years, 1.1% property tax and $1,800 of insurance a year.

Housing can take 28% of $8,333 a month: $2,333.33. The highest price whose full payment fits that is about $338,068.

All debts come to 32.8% of income, under 36%, so housing is the limit here.

What the rate changes

The rate moves the price more than anything else you can't control.

The mortgage calculator shows the full schedule for the price you pick.

Mistakes to avoid

These are the ways buyers end up house poor.

• Buying at the top of what the lender approves
• Forgetting property tax and insurance in the budget
• Using take-home pay with a rule built on gross pay
• Spending the emergency fund on the down payment

Who is the home affordability calculator for?

It's for first-time buyers and anyone moving up, and these tools cover the next steps.

• Mortgage calculator – for the payment and schedule on a price
• Down payment calculator – for how much to put down
• Closing cost calculator – for the cash you need on the day
• Rent affordability calculator – for renting instead
• Net worth tracker – for watching your equity grow

Find your ceiling, then pick a price comfortably under it.