Financing tools
Mortgage Affordability
How much home your income and debts actually support — plus what happens to that number if rates rise.
Direct answer: your maximum affordable purchase price comes from your monthly income and debts, not a lender’s pre-approval letter alone. Enter your numbers to see the maximum monthly housing payment your income supports, the loan and purchase price that implies, and the cash you’d need at closing.
Income & debts
Loan terms
Estimated ongoing costs
Cash required & sensitivity
Maximum affordable purchase price
$311,014
28%/36% are commonly referenced conventional-loan guidelines, not a universal or guaranteed-approval threshold — adjust both to match your own lender's guidance.
- Maximum monthly housing payment
- $2,240
- Binding limit
- Front-end DTI
- Available for principal & interest
- $1,670
- Maximum loan amount
- $251,014
- Down payment
- $60,000
- Estimated closing costs
- $7,775
- Total cash required
- $67,775
Rate sensitivity
- 7%
- At today's rate
- $311,014
- Max price at today's rate
- 9%
- At a higher rate
- $267,551
- Max price at higher rate
The same monthly budget affords a smaller loan at a higher rate — this shows how much your maximum purchase price would fall if rates rose by the amount entered above.
Affordability isn't just a percentage
The number this tool gives you is a ceiling, not a target.
Comfortable and maximum are rarely the same figure. Treat the result as the top of a range, then work backward from what still leaves room for savings, other goals, and unexpected costs.
Methodology
How this is calculated.
- Maximum housing payment = the lower of your front-end cap (housing alone) and your back-end cap (housing plus other debts) — whichever is more restrictive is the binding limit, matching standard underwriting practice.
- Available for principal & interest = the maximum housing payment minus taxes, insurance, HOA, and mortgage insurance.
- Maximum loan amount is solved by inverting the standard amortization formula — the largest loan that specific payment can support at your rate and term.
- Maximum purchase price = maximum loan amount plus your down payment.
28% and 36% are commonly referenced conventional-loan DTI guidelines — not a universal or guaranteed-approval threshold. Both fields are yours to edit; actual underwriting limits vary by lender, loan program, credit profile, and compensating factors.
Worked example (hypothetical)
$8,000 monthly gross income, $400 in other monthly debts, 28%/36% DTI targets, $60,000 down payment, 7% rate, 30-year term, and $300 taxes, $120 insurance, $150 mortgage insurance a month: the front-end cap ($2,240) is more restrictive than the back-end cap ($2,480), so it binds. After taxes, insurance, and mortgage insurance, roughly $1,670 is available for principal and interest — supporting a maximum loan of roughly $251,014 and a maximum purchase price of roughly $311,014. At 2.5% closing costs, total cash required is roughly $67,775. If rates rose 2 points to 9%, that same budget would support a maximum purchase price of roughly $267,551 instead — about $43,000 less purchasing power for an identical monthly budget.
Downside cases
- Qualifying for the maximum a lender offers doesn’t mean that payment is comfortable — this calculator shows what income supports, not what you should necessarily spend.
- A rate increase between pre-approval and an accepted offer can meaningfully shrink what the same budget actually affords.
- Underestimating taxes, insurance, or HOA dues for the actual property and area can make a real offer’s payment higher than this estimate.
National considerations
DTI guidelines, loan limits, and qualifying standards are set at the loan-program level and change over time.
Utah considerations
Property tax rates and typical HOA structures vary by Utah county — use local figures rather than a national average where possible.
Author: Todd McClean, Realtor® | Real Estate Investment Strategist, Mountainland Realty, Inc.. Reviewed July 19, 2026. This tool provides general real estate information and is not legal, tax, accounting, lending, securities, commodities, or financial-planning advice.
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Questions
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between front-end and back-end DTI?
Are 28% and 36% the actual limits lenders use?
Why does the calculator ask for taxes and insurance as dollar amounts?
How much does a higher rate actually affect what I can afford?
Next step
Ready to talk through a purchase budget?
A strategy review can help translate this into an actual offer range.