House Affordability Calculator
How much house your income supports, once existing debts and running costs are counted.
What a lender will approve and what you can carry are different numbers. Lenders look at income, debts and a maximum debt-to-income ratio; you also have to live with the monthly payment, the taxes and the insurance afterwards.
Enter your income, your existing monthly debts and your deposit, and this calculator gives the housing budget, the price it supports and how much of your income the payment would use.
At a glance
- What you enter
- Gross monthly income, Existing monthly debt payments, Down payment available, Expected interest rate, Term, Maximum debt-to-income ratio
- What you get
- Home price you can afford, Housing budget per month, Mortgage it supports, Payment as a share of gross income
- Formula shown
- Yes - every step, right below your results.
- Cost and privacy
- Free, no account needed, and nothing you type is stored.
See worked examples ↓ Read the FAQ ↓ Share this calculator ↓
Results are estimates for general information only - always verify with a professional or official source before acting on them.
How to use the House Affordability Calculator
- 1 Enter Gross monthly income - Before tax. Lenders usually work from gross income.
- 2 Enter Existing monthly debt payments - Car loans, student loans, credit card minimums, personal loans.
- 3 Enter Down payment available
- 4 Enter Expected interest rate
- 5 Enter Term (years)
- 6 Enter Maximum debt-to-income ratio - 36% is a common conservative ceiling. Some lenders go to 43% or higher.
- 7 Press Calculate. You get Home price you can afford, Housing budget per month, Mortgage it supports, Payment as a share of gross income, and every intermediate step stays visible under “How is this calculated?”
- 8 Change one number at a time to see what moves the result - that is usually the most useful thing a calculator can tell you.
Worked examples
Real numbers run through this calculator. Open any example to load it into the form above and change it.
$6,000 a month with $400 of existing debt at a 36% ceiling
A household testing what a conservative lender ratio supports at 6%.
You enter
- Gross monthly income
- $6,000.00
- Existing monthly debt payments
- $400.00
- Down payment available
- $60,000.00
- Expected interest rate
- 6%
- Term
- 30 years
- Maximum debt-to-income ratio
- 36%
You get
- Home price you can afford
- $353,553.24
- Housing budget per month
- $1,760.00
- Mortgage it supports
- $293,553.24
- Payment as a share of gross income
- 29.3%
A 36% ceiling allows $2,160 of total monthly debt. After the $400 you already pay, the housing budget is $1,760, which supports a mortgage of $293,553 and a home price of about $353,553 with your $60,000 deposit. The payment uses 29.3% of gross income, and the price is 4.9 times the $72,000 annual income.
$9,000 a month with $900 of existing debt at a 43% ceiling
A higher income testing what a stretch lender ratio supports at 6.5%.
You enter
- Gross monthly income
- $9,000.00
- Existing monthly debt payments
- $900.00
- Down payment available
- $120,000.00
- Expected interest rate
- 6.50%
- Term
- 30 years
- Maximum debt-to-income ratio
- 43%
You get
- Home price you can afford
- $589,886.13
- Housing budget per month
- $2,970.00
- Mortgage it supports
- $469,886.13
- Payment as a share of gross income
- 33.0%
A 43% ceiling allows $3,870 of total monthly debt. After the $900 you already pay, the housing budget is $2,970, which supports a mortgage of $469,886 and a price of about $589,886 with your $120,000 deposit. The payment uses 33.0% of gross income, against 29.3% in the first example, and both figures are principal and interest before tax and insurance are added.
Guides that go with it
How Much House Can I Afford on My Salary?
You earn a steady salary. You want a house. Somewhere between those two facts sits a number you need to know before you talk to a lender, a seller, or a real estate agent: the top price you can realis…
How Much of Your Salary Should Go to Rent?
You can work out a defensible rent ceiling in about fifteen minutes with nothing more than your payslip and a calculator. By the end of this guide you will know your gross and take-home pay, the rent…
How Much Can You Save by Paying Off Debt Early?
Paying extra toward a loan feels good. But how much does it actually save? In about ten minutes, you can work out the real number for your own debt: how many months you would cut, how much interest yo…
Frequently asked questions
What debt-to-income ratio should I enter?
The ratio is the share of gross monthly income that can go to all debt payments together, including the new mortgage. Enter 36 for a conservative test that many lenders use as a guideline, then try 43 to see what a more generous lender would allow. Above that, approval usually depends on other factors such as savings, a long employment record or a large deposit.
Existing debts are the car loan, student loan, personal loan and credit card minimum payments you already make. Living costs such as food, transport and childcare are not debts and are not deducted, which is exactly why the result can look larger than your life feels.
Does the home price include taxes, insurance and fees?
The price is built from principal and interest only. The housing budget is turned back into a loan with the amortisation formula reversed, so property tax, home insurance, mortgage insurance, a building charge and maintenance all have to fit inside the same monthly budget rather than sit on top of it.
Buying costs are outside the figure too: taxes on the purchase, legal fees, a valuation, a survey and the move usually add a few per cent of the price in cash. Searching at a lower price, or increasing the deposit, is what makes room for those costs in a real budget.
Why is the calculation based on gross income rather than take-home pay?
Lenders work from gross income, so a ratio they quote is measured against the figure before tax. Your payment, however, leaves your bank account after tax has been deducted, so a payment that fits the ratio can still feel heavy. To check it honestly, compare the housing budget with your net monthly income rather than the gross figure you typed in.
The Salary Calculator turns a gross salary into a monthly take-home figure, which makes that comparison straightforward.
Why does the room against the ceiling show zero?
Because the housing budget is defined as the ceiling minus your existing debt payments, the two cancel out and the room reads zero whenever your debts sit below the ceiling. It is not a warning: it means the budget uses the whole allowance you set.
The figure turns negative only when your existing debt payments already exceed the maximum, in which case the housing budget is zero and nothing is left for a mortgage. Paying down a loan before applying is then the step that unlocks borrowing.
Terms used here
Short, plain-language definitions of the words this calculator uses.