Mortgage Calculator By Income
Enter your income once, in whatever pay frequency you actually get paid in, and see three different answers to “how much house can I afford” — the lender’s 28/36 rule, the conservative 25% take-home rule, and the quick salary multiplier — instead of just one number.
Reviewed for accuracy: August 2026 · 28/36 rule methodology from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Your Income
Used only for the 25% take-home rule. A rough after-tax estimate; check a recent pay stub for your actual number.
Loan Assumptions
Max Affordable Home Price
Three Methods, Three Different Answers
This is the part most calculators hide from you. Depending on which method you use, “how much house can I afford” has a genuinely different answer, on the exact same income.
28/36 Rule (Lender Standard)
What most mortgage lenders will likely qualify you for, based on gross income and standard DTI limits.
25% Take-Home Rule
A more conservative number based on after-tax income and a 15-year term, popularized by Dave Ramsey.
Salary Multiplier
A fast ballpark: your annual gross salary times your chosen multiplier, no DTI math required.
Reverse Lookup: Income Needed For a Target Home Price
Flip the question around. If you already have a home price in mind, see roughly what gross income the 28/36 rule says you’d need to support it.
What Income Supports What Home Price
Using your own rate, down payment, and debt assumptions above, here’s how the math scales across common salary levels.
| Annual Income | Max Monthly Housing | Est. Max Home Price (28/36 Rule) |
|---|
Why This Calculator Gives You Three Numbers, Not One
Every affordability calculator I’ve looked at picks one methodology and presents it as the answer, and that’s a little misleading, because “how much house can I afford” isn’t actually one question. A lender’s 28/36 rule answers “what will I likely qualify for,” using gross income before taxes and standard debt-to-income limits. A 25% take-home pay rule, the one Dave Ramsey popularized, answers a different question entirely: “what payment can I sustain comfortably without financial strain,” using after-tax income and a shorter 15-year term that builds equity faster but demands a bigger monthly payment. A salary multiplier just gives you a fast gut-check number without touching your actual debts or rate at all.
None of these is the “correct” one. They’re three different lenses on the same decision, and the gap between them is often larger than people expect. The 28/36 rule frequently produces the highest number, since it’s built around qualification limits, not comfort. The 25% take-home rule usually lands meaningfully lower, since it’s working with a smaller income base (after tax) against a bigger monthly requirement (15-year principal). Seeing all three side by side, rather than being handed a single confident-sounding figure, is a more honest starting point for a decision this size.
Why your credit score changes this entire calculation
Everything above assumes a specific interest rate, but that rate isn’t fixed for you personally, it’s a direct function of your credit profile. Borrowers with scores above roughly 760 typically land the lowest available rates, while scores under 620 can face rates 1.5 to 2 percentage points higher, sometimes more, or struggle to qualify at all. On a $300,000 loan, that rate gap alone is worth well over $100,000 in additional interest across the life of the loan. If your score has room to improve before you buy, it’s often worth more to your affordability number than a bigger down payment would be.
Qualifying for a home and being able to sustain it aren’t the same thing
A lender’s 28/36 rule tells you what you can qualify for on paper. It doesn’t know about your grocery bill, your retirement contributions, your kid’s daycare, or the vacation you take every summer. That’s exactly the gap the 25% take-home rule is trying to close, at the cost of a smaller number that some buyers find frustratingly conservative. There’s no universally right answer here, only the honest tension between what a lender will approve and what actually fits comfortably into the rest of your financial life.
Frequently Asked Questions
Most lenders use the 28/36 rule: your total housing payment shouldn’t exceed 28% of your gross monthly income, and all debts combined, including housing, shouldn’t exceed 36%. Applied to a $100,000 annual salary with no other debt, that generally supports a home in the high $300,000s to low $400,000s, depending on your down payment, rate, and local taxes and insurance.
The 28/36 rule is the most widely used mortgage affordability guideline. The 28 means your housing payment, including principal, interest, taxes, and insurance, shouldn’t exceed 28% of your gross monthly income. The 36 means that number plus all other debt payments shouldn’t exceed 36% of your gross monthly income.
Popularized by financial personality Dave Ramsey, the 25% rule caps your mortgage payment (principal and interest only, on a 15-year fixed loan) at 25% of your net take-home pay, which is more conservative than the 28/36 rule since it uses after-tax income and a shorter loan term.
The salary multiplier rule estimates an affordable home price as roughly 2.5 to 4.5 times your gross annual salary, with the exact multiplier depending on your down payment, existing debt, and local interest rates. It’s a quick rule of thumb, not a substitute for a full DTI calculation.
Yes, significantly. Borrowers with credit scores above 760 typically qualify for the lowest available mortgage rates, while scores below 620 can face rates 1.5 to 2 percentage points higher, or struggle to qualify at all. On a $300,000 loan, that rate gap alone can mean over $100,000 in additional interest over the life of the loan.
Because they’re measuring different things. A lender’s 28/36 rule uses gross income and standard DTI limits to show what you can qualify for. A 25% take-home pay rule uses after-tax income and a shorter loan term to show a more conservative, comfortable number. A salary multiplier gives a fast ballpark. None of them is wrong, they’re answering slightly different questions: what you qualify for versus what you can sustain comfortably.
Yes. Choose your actual pay frequency, annual, monthly, biweekly, or hourly, and the calculator converts it to an annual gross figure automatically before running the affordability math, so you don’t have to do the conversion yourself.
Yes, if you’ll both be on the mortgage application. Combine your gross incomes and combined monthly debts before entering them, since lenders evaluate household income and debt together for a joint application.
Recurring, reportable debt: car loans, student loans, minimum credit card payments, personal loans, and any other debt appearing on your credit report. It does not include everyday living expenses like groceries, utilities, or subscriptions, even though those affect your real-world budget.
It depends on your existing debt load. Buyers with little to no other debt are usually capped by the 28% front-end ratio. Buyers carrying car loans, student loans, or credit card balances are more often capped by the 36% back-end ratio instead, since those debts eat into the total budget before housing is even considered.
Sometimes. Certain loan programs, particularly FHA, allow higher ratios (commonly up to 31%/43%, and sometimes higher with strong compensating factors like cash reserves or excellent credit). Qualifying for more doesn’t automatically mean it’s the comfortable choice for your budget, though.
It’s a rough estimate meant for the 25% take-home rule calculation only. Your actual take-home percentage depends on your tax bracket, state income tax, retirement contributions, and benefits deductions, so check a recent pay stub for a more precise number if this rule matters to your decision.
Related Mortgage Calculators
- Mortgage Calculators Hub — browse every state-specific and loan-program calculator on DexoCalc, including FHA, VA, USDA, and PMI tools.
- Main Mortgage Calculator — once you have a target price from this calculator, run the full PITI payment breakdown with your specific rate and terms.
- First-Time Home Buyer Mortgage Calculator — if this is your first purchase, compare FHA, VA, USDA, and Conventional 3% programs and estimate your Mortgage Credit Certificate benefit.
- Mortgage Calculator With PMI — if your affordable price puts you under 20% down, model your PMI cost and cancellation timeline in detail.