Work backwards from your income and existing debts to a home price whose full monthly payment (principal, interest, property tax, insurance and HOA) keeps your debt-to-income ratio at a level you choose.
Estimated home price
$0
- Max total monthly housing payment
- Loan amount
- Principal and interest
- Property tax
- Insurance + HOA
Your current debts already use up this ratio.
Estimate only, not tax or financial advice. Lenders set their own limits and also look at credit, savings and the loan type. This ignores PMI, closing costs and maintenance, which can be significant. A price you can borrow is not always a price that is comfortable.
How this works
Debt-to-income (DTI) is your total monthly debt payments divided by gross monthly income, as the CFPB explains. There is no single legal cap: the CFPB’s rule for General Qualified Mortgages used to include a 43% DTI limit, but that limit was replaced with price-based thresholds, and different lenders and loan types set different limits. The 36% default here is a conservative starting point, not an official figure. The principal-and-interest part uses the standard amortization formula.
Sources
- CFPB: What is a debt-to-income ratio?
- CFPB: General QM loan definition final rule (removed the 43% DTI limit)
- CFPB: What is amortization and how could it affect my loan?
Figures checked against the sources above on October 24, 2026. By Fintrovert.