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🏡 the 28/36 rule — no lender's incentive baked in

Home Affordability Calculator

See the maximum home price you can afford using the standard 28/36 debt-to-income guideline lenders actually use - not a bank's own calculator nudging you toward a bigger loan. Nothing leaves your browser.

28/36 rule: housing costs at most 28% of gross monthly income (front-end ratio), and total debts including housing at most 36% (back-end ratio). This is a common lending guideline, not a guarantee of approval - actual limits vary by lender and loan program.

How it works

The calculator applies both halves of the 28/36 rule at once: it caps monthly housing costs at 28% of gross monthly income (the front-end ratio) and caps total debt payments — housing plus your existing monthly debts — at 36% (the back-end ratio), then takes whichever cap is lower as your real housing budget. It subtracts your estimated property tax and insurance from that budget to isolate the principal & interest payment, then runs the standard amortization formula in reverse to solve for the loan size that produces exactly that payment at your rate and term, and adds your down payment on top to get the max home price.

FAQ

Why does the calculator use two different percentages, 28% and 36%?
Because lenders check both: the front-end ratio (28%) limits housing costs alone, while the back-end ratio (36%) limits total debt including housing plus things like car loans and credit cards — whichever cap comes out lower is the one that actually constrains you.
Why does raising the interest rate lower my max home price?
The calculator works backward from a fixed maximum monthly payment. At a higher rate, more of that fixed payment goes toward interest instead of principal, so the same payment can only support a smaller loan amount.

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