Home Affordability Calculator (28 / 36 Rule)
"How much house can I afford?" is the first question every buyer asks. This tool applies the lending-industry 28 / 36 rule as a quick screen: monthly housing costs (PITI = Principal + Interest + property Taxes + Insurance, plus HOA / management fees) should stay under 28 % of gross monthly income (front-end DTI), and all monthly debt payments (including car, credit card, student loans) should stay under 36 % (back-end DTI). Enter your income, existing debts, mortgage rate and term — the tool reports the maximum monthly payment, loan amount and corresponding home price under each rule, and tells you which rule is currently binding your budget.
Check inputs: income > 0, other fields ≥ 0, term > 0.
Max affordable home price
$390,255
Max loan amount
$340,255
Max monthly PITI
$2,240
of which P + I: $1,840
Front-end rule cap
$2,240
Back-end rule cap
$2,380
Formula
Front-end cap = gross monthly income × 28 % Back-end cap = gross monthly income × 36 % − other monthly debt Max PITI = min(front-end cap, back-end cap) Back-out the loan principal via annuity-PV: i = annual rate ⁄ 12 ⁄ 100 n = term × 12 months P + I cap = Max PITI − monthly tax / insurance / HOA Max loan = (P + I cap) · (1 − (1 + i)^(−n)) ⁄ i (i > 0) Max price = Max loan + down payment
- · Origin of the 28 / 36 rule: Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac codified it in the 1970s as the secondary-mortgage-market standard, the Federal Reserve popularised it as a general home-buying rule of thumb, and it is now the de-facto first-screen used by lenders worldwide.
- · This tool reports the upper bound — actual underwriting also considers credit score, down-payment / LTV, reserve months, employment stability and more. A real pre-approval is usually more conservative than this back-of-envelope estimate.
- · US FHA loans allow 31 / 43; CFPB's Qualified Mortgage rule caps back-end DTI at 43 %; VA Home Loans have no hard DTI cap. You can override both percentages in the panel below.
- · Regulatory glossary: front-end ratio = housing expense ratio; back-end ratio = total debt-to-income ratio (DTI); PITI = Principal, Interest, property Tax, Insurance — some markets fold in HOA / strata / management fees.
- · Even when 28 / 36 passes, layer in: (1) a 3–6-month emergency fund, (2) interest-rate stress testing (+200 bps), and (3) closing costs beyond the down payment (legal, stamp duty, valuation, fit-out — typically 5–10 % of the price).
- · References: Fannie Mae Selling Guide §B3-6 (Qualifying the Borrower); CFPB Ability-to-Repay Rule (12 CFR §1026.43); HUD 4000.1 (FHA Single Family Housing Policy Handbook); Federal Reserve Consumer Compliance Handbook.
Frequently asked
Does the 28 / 36 rule use gross or net income?
In the US and most English-speaking markets: gross monthly income — Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, VA and HUD underwriting forms all calculate DTI on gross. The reason is industry standardisation: gross income is unaffected by personal tax decisions (state vs federal, SALT cap, HSA, 401k, etc.). Asian practice differs slightly: Australia, Singapore and UK affordability assessments often use net income; Hong Kong's HKMA Debt Servicing Ratio (DSR) 50 % / 60 % framework also uses gross. The practical workflow is: run the 28 / 36 rule on gross to match lender screens, then re-run a cashflow on net income with full living expenses — gross-based rules are actually less conservative than they look. This tool reports on gross to match standard lender underwriting.
How much should I budget for the T + I (tax + insurance) part of PITI?
It varies a lot by region. US national averages: property tax ~1.0 % – 2.5 % of price per year (high in NJ / TX, low in CA), homeowners insurance ~0.3 % – 0.8 % per year, and PMI (when down payment < 20 %) ~0.5 % – 1.5 % per year. As a rough sum for a $500k home in an average US city, expect $750 – $1,500 / month in TI. HOA dues are typical for condos / townhouses ($200 – $600 / mo); single-family homes usually have no HOA or a small annual fee. Hong Kong: rates ~5 % of rateable value/yr, government rent extra, home insurance HK$300 – 800 / mo, and overall monthly carrying cost commonly HK$2,000 – 6,000 (management fee dominated). Europe: similar property tax bands plus condominium fees. Practical workflow: (1) look up the jurisdiction's millage / tax rate; (2) seed an estimate with 1.2 % × price ⁄ 12 (US median); (3) confirm with the escrow agent before closing. This calculator takes your TI estimate as a separate input.
Why specifically 28 / 36 and not some other ratio?
Those two numbers come out of 1970s – 80s US secondary-market research: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac plotted default rates against housing-cost ratios and found a clear inflection above 28 % housing expense ratio, with back-end DTI above 36 % roughly doubling default rates versus loans below 36 %. The industry also used 25 / 33 for a while, but 28 / 36 became the mainstream textbook number from the late 1980s onwards. The 1990s and 2000s credit cycles repeatedly validated it; in the run-up to the 2008 crisis, sub-prime DTIs of 50 %+ produced the expected spike in defaults, which led regulators to formalise the rule. The CFPB's 2014 Qualified Mortgage rule pegged back-end DTI at 43 % (a 36 % + buffer compromise) with carve-outs. Programme-specific variants (FHA 31 / 43, VA no hard cap, HKMA DSR 50 / 60) are local calibrations of the same idea against local default data.
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