How much house can you realistically afford based on your income, cash, existing debts and monthly expenses?
Build a household plan first. See what the new home would cost each month, how much cash you need, and which constraint limits your purchase. A separate lender-style estimate provides context.
Based on gross household income, existing debt payments and an illustrative debt-to-income (DTI) guideline.
This is an illustrative borrowing estimate, not a mortgage preapproval or guaranteed loan amount.
Your available purchase cash may not cover the down payment and closing costs at this price.
Based on your available purchase cash, monthly household expenses, savings and comfortable housing budget.
Lenders generally evaluate gross income and qualifying debt obligations. RockUtility’s household-budget estimate also considers take-home pay, everyday expenses, savings, cash reserves, closing costs and available purchase funds. A lender-style maximum may be higher than what you comfortably want to spend.
The monthly budget alone supports . The main answer also checks available purchase cash.
Monthly payment ÷ income × 100. Gross income is before taxes; take-home is what you receive. Each debt is shown separately. Housing components are not added again to the housing subtotal.
How much house can I realistically afford? First choose your monthly household budget: either take-home pay minus living expenses, existing debt payments, planned savings and an extra cushion, or a comfortable housing budget you enter directly. No after-tax income is estimated for you.
The validated fixed-rate solver finds the maximum cent-valued home price fitting that budget, including P&I, property tax, insurance, HOA, initial PMI and maintenance. We then check purchase cash at that price and reduce the planning price if the chosen down payment and closing costs require it. The lender-style DTI maximum is shown separately and does not cap the primary household answer.
Available purchase cash is savings minus protected reserves plus other available funds, plus net sale proceeds only when you mark them available at closing. Net sale proceeds subtract mortgage payoff, other liens, selling costs and extra sale expenses. Timely negative proceeds reduce available purchase funds; later sale shortfalls remain separate obligations. Available purchase cash never goes below zero.
Purchase cash needed is min(planned down payment, home price) plus buyer closing costs. A cash price boundary can come from price-based closing costs or insufficient funds for the fixed down payment; this is conditional on that chosen strategy. If the down payment and fixed closing costs fit, cash alone supplies no finite home-price maximum. Loan-to-value, minimum down-payment and program financing limits are not modeled.
Fixed-rate monthly principal and interest use P × r ÷ [1 − (1 + r)−n], with APR ÷ 1200 as r and whole payment months as n. At zero APR, P&I is principal ÷ months. The solver keeps the tested piecewise PMI boundary and exact cent-feasibility comparisons, bounded at a $1 billion search ceiling.
PMI is a constant initial principal × annual PMI rate ÷ 1200 below 20% down. Exactly 20% or more removes PMI in this simplified model; no cancellation is simulated. This does not represent all conventional, FHA, VA or other loans. Taxes and maintenance are each price × annual rate ÷ 1200; insurance and HOA stay fixed. Defaults are editable examples.
Maintenance is household budgeting, not lender debt. Lender housing includes P&I, tax, insurance, HOA and PMI. Ordinary living expenses, savings and maintenance are excluded from lender DTI. Gross monthly income is annual income ÷ 12; front-end DTI is housing ÷ gross income, and back-end DTI includes existing debts. Actual underwriting may count payments differently and varies by program and lender.
Your monthly cash remaining is what remains after housing, living expenses, debts and savings. The additional cushion input reserves part of that amount in cash-flow mode. Direct-budget mode can still produce a negative monthly cash remaining; review that warning rather than treating a chosen budget as proof of comfort. Utilities belong in living expenses; do not count a replaced rent or mortgage again.
Cash remaining excludes the protected reserve. Buyer closing costs do not cover every possible prepaid escrow, moving or furnishing expense. No bridge financing or simultaneous home closings is assumed. Price increases and income changes are not predicted. Currency and percentages round independently to two decimals.
Read more: CFPB: debt-to-income ratio and CFPB: private mortgage insurance.
Estimates for planning only. No lender approval, personalized financial advice or guarantee of affordability.