Home Affordability Calculator
Estimate a comfortable home price from income, debts, down payment and mortgage assumptions.
Educational estimate only. This is not financial, investment, tax, legal or lending advice, a quote or a guarantee. Read the disclaimer.
Your inputs
How this calculator works
The calculator searches home prices from $0 to $3,000,000, using 70 bisection steps. At each price, principal is max(0, price − down payment); fixed monthly loan payment uses the amortization formula above. Annual property tax and insurance percentages of price are divided by 12 and added to that payment. The highest modeled price within the housing budget is shown. A result at $3,000,000 reaches the search ceiling, not a proven maximum. If existing debts already exceed target DTI, there is no housing budget under that target. Excludes PMI, HOA, closing costs, utilities, maintenance, reserves, living expenses, credit checks and lender-specific rules. This is neither a loan approval nor a recommendation about a comfortable budget.
Dollar results are in USD and generally rounded to the nearest whole dollar; salary equivalents and percentage outputs use two decimal places. Calculations retain JavaScript floating-point precision between steps rather than rounding every payment to cents. Displayed components may not sum exactly to displayed totals. Payoff times use whole monthly payment periods. Defaults are examples, not current rates or recommendations.
Full methodology · About the publisher and corrections
Content and calculation checks: October 12, 2026. Educational estimates; no independent professional certification is claimed.
Worked example: $120,000 household income
With $120,000 of gross annual household income, $600 in monthly debt payments, a $60,000 down payment, a 6.5% mortgage rate and a 36% target debt-to-income ratio, the default model estimates a home price of about $441,499. That corresponds to a modeled loan of about $381,499 and a housing payment near $3,000 per month including the entered tax and insurance assumptions.
This is a planning ceiling under the model, not a lender approval or a recommendation to spend that amount.
Practical guide
Use affordability as a range, not a target
- Try a lower target debt-to-income ratio to create more room for savings, utilities, maintenance and unexpected expenses.
- Change the down payment separately from the interest rate so you can see which assumption drives the result.
- Property tax and insurance vary by location and can materially change the estimate.
- Actual underwriting may use different income, debt and reserve rules.
After you identify a purchase-price range, use the Mortgage Calculator to inspect the payment breakdown.
How to use the result
Change one assumption at a time to compare scenarios. For example, test a lower rate, larger contribution, different term or extra payment. This makes the calculator most useful as a decision-support tool rather than a single-number answer.
Important financial decisions can depend on taxes, fees, eligibility rules, lender policies, market returns and personal circumstances that this simplified calculator does not capture.
Frequently asked questions
Is this home affordability calculator free?
Yes. SumStride calculators are free to use and do not require an account.
Are the results exact?
No. Results are estimates based on the values you enter and the assumptions described on this page. Real-world fees, taxes, rates, policies and timing can differ.
Does SumStride save my inputs?
No account is required. The calculator runs in your browser; SumStride does not need your entered values to perform the calculation.