Estimate how much home you can reasonably afford — based on your income and debts, or on a fixed monthly budget.
Lenders size a mortgage against your income and existing debts using a debt-to-income (DTI) ratio — pick the rule that fits your loan type.
If you already know what you want to spend on housing each month, work backward from that budget instead.
Affordability isn't really about the size of the house — it's about the size of the monthly payment relative to your income. Lenders formalize this with a debt-to-income (DTI) ratio: the share of your gross monthly income that goes toward debt. A front-end ratio covers housing costs alone (loan payment, property tax, HOA, insurance); a back-end ratio adds in every other recurring debt — car loans, student loans, credit cards. Most conventional lenders cap these at 28% and 36% respectively, the so-called 28/36 rule.
FHA loans, insured by the federal government, tolerate more debt relative to income — up to 31% front-end and 43% back-end — because the insurance protects the lender if a riskier borrower defaults. VA loans, available to eligible veterans and service members, use a single combined ratio around 41% instead of splitting front-end and back-end. Whichever rule applies, the same principle holds: a lower DTI usually means an easier approval and better loan terms.
Not everyone thinks in DTI ratios. Some people simply know what they're comfortable spending each month and want to see what that translates to in house price — which is exactly what the fixed-budget version of this calculator does, skipping the income and debt inputs entirely.
Lenders don't factor ongoing maintenance into their DTI math, but it's still a real cost of owning a home — repairs, upkeep, appliance replacement. We include a rough 1.5%-of-price estimate so the "total monthly cost" figure reflects what you'd actually pay, not just what a lender would approve.
Yes, in two ways: it directly reduces the loan amount (and therefore the monthly payment) for any given price, and it can also help you qualify for a lower interest rate — both of which stretch your DTI-limited budget further.
Because the back-end ratio caps housing cost plus other debt together. Every dollar already committed to a car payment or student loan is a dollar lenders won't let you put toward housing under that ratio.
It applies the 41% DTI ratio VA lenders commonly use, but it doesn't model the VA funding fee, which varies by down payment size and prior VA loan use. Treat it as a starting estimate and confirm exact numbers with a VA-approved lender.
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