Why three tiers instead of one number?

Because affordability depends on risk tolerance and life circumstance, not just income. The Conservative tier (33 % back-end DTI + 1 % maintenance reserve) is what a fee-only fiduciary planner would recommend for a single-income household with kids and modest savings. The Standard tier (36 % + 0.5 % maintenance) matches Fannie Mae conventional underwriting — workable for most stable two-income households. The Aggressive tier (43 % + 0 % maintenance) is the FHA ceiling — what every DTI-only calc on the web shows you, which is why so many buyers stretch into mortgages they can’t maintain. Showing all three lets you see the spread and choose tier honestly. The recommendation row maps your job-stability score to a default tier; override if your situation differs.

Why is maintenance reserve so important?

Because every other affordability calculator ignores it, which is why so many homeowners get blindsided in years 3-7 by HVAC failures, roof replacement, water-heater leaks, foundation work, sewer-line repair. The Bureau of Labor Statistics CES + American Housing Survey put US single-family home maintenance at ~1 % of home price annually as a long-run mean. A $500K home means $5,000/yr or ~$420/mo budgeted for maintenance even if no individual year hits that — averaged over 30 years of ownership, it does. DTI-only calcs that show you ‘you can afford a $640K home’ without budgeting maintenance lure you into a purchase that breaks at year five when the AC dies and you can’t cover the $8K bill. The Conservative tier enforces the discipline.

What does ‘back-end DTI’ mean?

Back-end DTI = (total monthly debt obligations + total monthly housing) / gross monthly income. Total monthly housing = principal + interest + property tax + insurance + HOA + (maintenance, if you’re honest). Front-end DTI ignores existing debts and just looks at housing as % of income. Lenders use back-end as the primary qualifying metric. Conservative 33 %, Standard 36 %, Aggressive 43 % (FHA hard ceiling). FHA used to allow 50 %+ in 2007-2008 — you can guess how that ended. Anything above 43 % is a structural problem masquerading as a lending decision.

Why does job stability matter?

Because mortgage default risk is dominated by income disruption, not headline affordability. A 36 % DTI on a stable W-2 income is workable; a 36 % DTI on commission-only income is a job-loss away from default. A startup employee with 2 years at the firm has a meaningfully higher default probability than a tenured public-school teacher at the same DTI. The job-stability score routes the recommendation: score 1-4 (volatile / new / one-income) caps at Conservative; 5-7 (typical W-2) goes Standard; 8-10 (tenured / stable employer / dual income) can do Aggressive without falling apart on a single income shock. The math doesn’t change between scores — only the recommendation does.

Private mortgage insurance kicks in at down payments below 20 % and adds ~0.5-1.5 % of loan balance annually to the monthly housing cost. The calculator doesn’t add PMI explicitly — to get a precise number with PMI baked in, increase the insurance-rate input by your expected PMI rate (e.g. add 0.65 % if you have 5 % down). The PMI Removal Calculator handles the cancellation timing once equity hits 20 %. For affordability framing, PMI is a transient cost — you usually drop it in 4-7 years through paydown + appreciation — but it’s real money during the high-debt period and worth modeling.

Why does the Aggressive tier number look so much higher?

Because it’s the number every DTI-only calc shows you. The 43 % back-end DTI ceiling, with no maintenance reserve and the absolute minimum tax-and-insurance allocation, gives the largest possible house. It’s also the version of affordability that puts homeowners in financial distress when one car needs replacing or the AC dies. The stretch spread row in the result is the eye-opener: typically 25-40 % more ‘affordable’ on the Aggressive vs Conservative tier. That delta is real money each year — the calc is showing you what every other affordability tool is hiding.

Should I include rental income in gross income?

Only if you have 24+ months of Schedule E history showing the income survived a tenant turnover and a vacancy gap. Lenders typically count 75 % of gross rental income (the 25 % haircut accounts for vacancy + maintenance) and require 2 years on tax returns. New rentals or recent acquisitions don’t qualify. Same logic for your own affordability framing: rental cash flow is reliable only after multiple year-over-year proofs. Setting income too high produces a false-positive affordability number that breaks when a tenant moves out.

What if I’m buying in a state with no income tax?

Property tax is usually higher (Texas 1.80%, Tennessee 0.71% but with high local assessments, Wyoming 0.61%) — the no-income-tax states fund their budgets through property + sales tax. Plug your local property-tax rate into the calculator and the math accounts for the trade-off. Net affordability in no-income-tax states often reads as roughly equivalent to high-tax states for the same gross income because the property-tax line erodes the affordability gain.

Does this work for adjustable-rate mortgages?

Use the start rate as a fixed-rate proxy for the affordability check, then mentally apply a stress test at +2 % to see what happens at adjustment. The calc is built around fixed-rate amortization. ARMs are workable when you’re confident you’ll move or refinance within the fixed-rate window (5/1, 7/1, 10/1) — but the affordability number should stress-test against the post-adjustment rate. If the home isn’t affordable at the cap, the ARM is a rate gamble, not a financing decision.

What about a 15-year mortgage?

Drop the term input to 15. Monthly P&I rises ~50 % vs 30-year, which cuts max purchase price ~25-30 %. The 15-year saves substantial interest over the loan’s life — typically $150-300K on a $400K loan — but the affordability cap is meaningfully lower. Most buyers under 50 take the 30-year for affordability flexibility and pay it down faster voluntarily; the 30-year is the floor, the 15-year is the ceiling on monthly cost. The Mortgage Calculator runs the side-by-side comparison cleanly.

Why is the calc’s recommended price sometimes much lower than my pre-approval?

Because pre-approvals show the maximum the lender will lend, not what you can sustainably afford. Lenders qualify at 43-50 % DTI in some programs because their concern ends when you make payments + sell to investors. Your concern is making payments + maintaining lifestyle + handling shocks for 30 years. The calc’s Conservative tier is the answer to ‘sustainably afford,’ the Aggressive tier matches the pre-approval, and the spread between the two is the buffer between ‘will lend you this much’ and ‘you should actually borrow.’

Should I buy at all if the calc says I can’t afford the home I want?

Two reframes. First: the calc says what you can sustainably afford at today’s rates and prices — if your career trajectory is steep (medicine, engineering, finance early-career), running the calc again at year 3 or 5 may show very different numbers. Buying smaller now and trading up is a common path. Second: rent isn’t a default-fail option. The Buy vs Rent True Cost calculator (forthcoming) compares both paths — at high prices + high rates + short stay-windows, renting + investing the down payment often beats buying outright. If the math says rent for now, that’s the right answer.

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House Affordability Calculator — Conservative + Standard + Aggressive Tiers Beyond DTI

Drop your gross income, existing debts, down payment, property tax + insurance rates, mortgage rate, term, HOA, maintenance reserve, and job-stability score. Calculator returns three max-purchase tiers — Conservative (33 % back-end DTI + 1 % maintenance), Standard (36 % + 0.5 %), Aggressive (43 % + 0 %, the FHA ceiling) — plus the stretch spread that shows how much more ‘affordable’ a DTI-only calc claims by ignoring maintenance reserve. The differentiator vs every other affordability tool: maintenance and risk are baked into the housing cost, which is the entire reason DTI-only calcs lure buyers into stretch purchases that break their budget by year three.

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Reviewed by CalcBold EditorialLast verified May 4, 2026Methodology

Gross annual household income

Total gross household income before taxes — sum of W-2 wages, freelance net, rental net (if 2-yr Schedule E history), and reliable bonus / commission averaged over 24 months. Lenders use 24-month average for variable income; use the same to keep the affordability number honest.

Existing monthly debt payments

Sum of minimum monthly payments on auto loans, student loans, credit cards, personal loans, alimony, child support. Lenders pull this from your credit report. Excludes utilities, insurance, groceries — those are not debts.

Down payment amount

Cash earmarked for the down payment, not your total liquid savings. The calc treats remaining savings as your post-purchase emergency fund — keep at least 6 months of housing payments in liquid savings outside this number.

Mortgage interest rate

Current 30-year fixed rate quote you’d realistically get. Pull from a recent pre-approval letter, mortgage broker, or aggregator (Zillow, Bankrate). Don’t use the headline national average — your credit, DTI, and LTV usually push 0.25-0.75 pp above it.

Mortgage term

Loan length in years. Standard 30-yr maximizes affordability (lower monthly P&I); 15-yr saves substantial interest but pushes monthly housing higher and reduces max purchase price by ~30%. Use 30 unless you have specific reasons to shorten.

Property tax rate

Annual property tax as % of home price. US national median ~1.10%. High: NJ 2.21%, IL 2.05%, TX 1.80% (no state income tax compensates). Low: HI 0.28%, AL 0.41%. Pull yours from your county assessor or a Zillow listing in your target neighborhood. The Tax Foundation publishes state-by-state effective rates.

Homeowners insurance rate

Annual homeowners insurance as % of home price. US national median ~0.45%. Coastal (FL, NC, LA, TX coast): 1.0-2.5% due to wind/storm exposure. Wildfire zones (CA, OR, CO, AZ): 0.6-1.5%. Pull a quick quote from Lemonade or your existing carrier for a target home — coastal/wildfire numbers can flip the affordability math hard.

Monthly HOA / condo fee

HOA dues for condos / townhouses / planned communities. Single-family detached typically $0. Condos in major metros $400-1500/mo. The fee competes for your housing budget — high HOA reduces max purchase price linearly. Confirm dues + assessments with the listing or HOA before locking the affordability target.

Annual maintenance reserve

Annual home maintenance as % of home price. Empirical median 1.0% for US single-family homes (Bureau of Labor Statistics CES + American Housing Survey). Older homes (50+ yrs) trend 1.5-2.5%. New construction 0.3-0.7% the first decade. The Standard tier overrides up to 0.5 %; the Conservative tier enforces 1.0 % minimum even if you set this lower — that’s the discipline differentiator.

Job stability score (1-10)

Honest 1-10 self-assessment. 10 = tenured employee at large stable employer with 5+ yrs at firm. 7-8 = stable W-2 with 2-5 yrs at firm. 5-6 = freelance / contract with 1-2 yrs steady. 3-4 = recent role / volatile industry / one-income household. 1-2 = highly volatile. Drives the recommendation tier — score 1-4 → Conservative, 5-7 → Standard, 8-10 → Aggressive.

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What This Calculator Does

The House Affordability Calculator answers the question every homebuyer asks but almost no calculator answers honestly: how much house can I sustainably afford, accounting for the costs DTI-only calcs hide? Drop your gross income, existing debts, down payment, property-tax + insurance rates, mortgage rate, term, HOA, maintenance reserve, and job-stability score. The calculator returns three max-purchase tiers — Conservative (33 % back-end DTI + 1 % maintenance reserve), Standard (36 % + 0.5 %), Aggressive (43 % + 0 %, the FHA ceiling) — plus the stretch spread between Conservative and Aggressive that shows you exactly how much more ‘affordable’ a DTI-only calc claims by ignoring maintenance.

Most affordability calculators on the web compute one number based on a 36 % or 43 % DTI ratio with zero maintenance reserve and minimum tax + insurance. That number is what every Zillow / Bankrate / NerdWallet affordability widget shows you, and it’s the reason so many homeowners get blindsided in years 3-7 when the AC dies, the roof needs replacement, the sewer line backs up. Maintenance is real, predictable, and runs ~1 % of home price per year averaged over the ownership lifetime (Bureau of Labor Statistics CES + American Housing Survey). DTI-only calcs that ignore it produce affordability numbers that overstate by 25-40 %. This calculator surfaces all three tiers so you can see the spread and choose the tier that matches your actual financial discipline.

The Math — Three-Tier Closed-Form Solve

Linear in price, so the closed-form solve gives an exact answer without iteration. The mortgage factor comes from standard amortization (r × (1+r)^N / ((1+r)^N − 1)) at the monthly rate. Each tier substitutes its own DTI ratio and maintenance percentage:

Conservative:33 % back-end DTI · 1.0 % annual maintenance reserve · the ‘fee-only fiduciary planner’ tier
Standard: 36 % back-end DTI · 0.5 % maintenance · matches Fannie Mae conventional underwriting
Aggressive: 43 % back-end DTI · 0 % maintenance · FHA back-end ceiling — what every DTI-only calc shows you

Job-stability score routes the recommendation: scores 1-4 cap at Conservative, 5-7 default to Standard, 8-10 unlock Aggressive. The math doesn’t change between scores — only the recommendation row does. You can manually pick a tier different from the recommendation if your situation differs from the score-implied default.

A Worked Example — “Two-income household at $150K”

Suppose your household earns $150K gross ($12.5K/mo), you have $650/mo in existing debt (one car loan), $60K down payment, your local rates are 1.25 % property tax, 0.45 % insurance, $0 HOA, you target a 30-yr mortgage at 6.75 %, you set maintenance at 1 % of price, and your job-stability score is 7 (typical W-2 with 2-5 yrs at firm):

Conservative max (33 % DTI, 1 % maint): ~$435K · monthly housing ~$3,475
Standard max (36 % DTI, 1 % maint — user override binds): ~$485K · monthly housing ~$3,875
Aggressive max (43 % DTI, 1 % maint — user override binds): ~$590K · monthly housing ~$4,725
Stretch spread: Aggressive is ~36 % more home than Conservative — $155K of additional home if you ignore the discipline
Job-stability 7/10 → recommendation: Standard tier ($485K)

Note: the user set maintenance to 1 %, so even at Standard / Aggressive the calc enforces 1 % (the user override floors apply when stricter than the tier minimum). If the user had set maintenance to 0.5 % or 0 %, the spread between Standard and Aggressive would widen meaningfully — that’s the trap DTI-only calcs walk buyers into.

When This Is Useful

Five high-value moments. Pre-shopping check. Before you talk to a lender, run the calc to know what tier you can sustain. Lender pre-approvals come back at the Aggressive tier (FHA-style max DTI); knowing your Conservative number going in prevents emotional bidding into a stretch zone. Coastal / wildfire-zone homebuying. Insurance rates of 1.5-2.5 % (vs the 0.45 % national median) compound hard on max purchase price. Re-run the calc with your real insurance quote — the affordability delta vs your hometown can shock the budget. HOA-condo decisions. A $1,200/mo HOA in a major-metro condo eats $144K of max purchase price compared to a $0 HOA detached home at the same income. The calc surfaces this directly. New-construction vs older-home decision. 50+ year-old homes trend 1.5-2.5 % maintenance; new construction 0.3-0.7 % in the first decade. Run both tiers and the affordability gap is real. Income disruption pressure-test.Lower the gross income input by 25-30 % and re-run — that’s the affordability number on a single income. If Conservative tier still works, you’re resilient. If only Aggressive works, a job loss breaks the budget.

Common Mistakes

Trusting your pre-approval as ‘what you can afford.’Pre-approvals show what the lender will lend, not what you can sustainably afford. Lenders qualify at 43-50 % DTI in some programs because their concern ends when you sell to investors. Your concern is making payments + handling shocks for 30 years. The Conservative tier is the answer to ‘sustainably afford’; the Aggressive tier matches the pre-approval. The spread is the buffer.
Setting maintenance to 0 %. Every DTI-only calc on the web does this implicitly. The empirical median for US single-family home maintenance is ~1 % of home price annually averaged over a 30-year ownership. Setting maintenance to 0 produces the Aggressive number and walks you into the stretch trap. Use 1 % as the floor; 1.5-2.5 % for older homes; 0.3-0.7 % only for the first decade of new construction.
Including unreliable income. Lenders use 24-month averages for variable income (commission, bonus, freelance, rental). Use the same discipline. A peak-bonus year that won’t repeat shouldn’t set your affordability ceiling — when income reverts to median, the housing payment doesn’t. Plug a conservative income number; if income beats expectations, you save more, not buy more.
Ignoring the property-tax delta. Property-tax rates vary 8× across US states (HI 0.28% → NJ 2.21%). The same gross income produces wildly different affordability across states because the tax line erodes the housing budget at every price point. Pull your real local rate from the county assessor or a Zillow listing in your target neighborhood; don’t use the 1.10 % national median if you live in a high-tax state.
Forgetting PMI on low-down-payment purchases.Below 20 % down, you pay PMI of ~0.5-1.5 % of loan balance annually until you hit 20 % equity through paydown + appreciation. The calc doesn’t add PMI explicitly — increase the insurance-rate input by your expected PMI rate to model it. PMI is transient (typically 4-7 years), but it’s real money during the high-debt period and shifts affordability meaningfully if you’re putting down 5-10 %.
Overlooking the stay-window.The calc gives you a sustainable affordability number at today’s rates and prices. If you’re planning to move in 3-5 years, the affordability discipline matters less (you’ll exit before maintenance fully accrues) but transaction costs matter more (typical 7-10 % round-trip). Short stay-windows usually favor renting + investing — run the Buy vs Rent True Cost calc to see which dominates your specific scenario.

Related Calculators

Once you’ve picked a tier, the Mortgage Calculator gives the full PITI breakdown for the specific loan amount + scenario panels (rent-vs-buy break-even, accelerated payoff). If you’re refinancing an existing mortgage rather than buying fresh, the Mortgage Refinance Calculator is the break-even check on whether the costs justify the new rate. Buyers below 20 % down should pair this with the PMI Removal Calculator to model when paydown + appreciation hit the 20 % threshold so you can drop the premium. And if you’re saving the down-payment in a taxable brokerage, year-end Tax-Loss Harvesting routes more of your savings into the down-payment fund without changing the underlying market exposure.

Sources & Methodology

The formulas, thresholds, and benchmarks behind this calculator are anchored to the primary sources below. Where a study or agency document is the underlying authority, we link straight to it — not a summary or republished version.

CFPB — Qualified Mortgage and Ability-to-Repay Rule· Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Federal regulation defining 43% maximum DTI for qualified mortgages — the underlying ability-to-repay benchmark used by the calculator.
Accessed 2026-05-04
HUD — Affordable Housing Cost Burden Definition· U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Federal definition of housing cost burden (>30% of gross income) and severe burden (>50%) anchoring affordability thresholds.
Accessed 2026-05-04
Federal Reserve — H.15 Selected Interest Rates: Mortgage· Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Authoritative federal dataset on prevailing mortgage rates used to compute realistic monthly P&I in affordability scenarios.
Accessed 2026-05-04
Freddie Mac — Primary Mortgage Market Survey· Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation
Weekly authoritative survey of 30-year fixed mortgage rates used as the calculator's rate-default benchmark.
Accessed 2026-05-04
Fannie Mae — Selling Guide: Debt-to-Income Ratios· Federal National Mortgage Association
GSE underwriting standard for front-end (28%) and back-end (36%) DTI ratios used in conventional-loan affordability tests.
Accessed 2026-05-04
BLS — Consumer Price Index: Owners' Equivalent Rent· U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Federal methodology for housing-cost measurement used to validate property-tax and home-insurance default ratios.
Accessed 2026-05-04

Frequently Asked Questions

The most common questions we get about this calculator — each answer is kept under 60 words so you can scan.

Why three tiers instead of one number?
Because affordability depends on risk tolerance and life circumstance, not just income. The Conservative tier (33 % back-end DTI + 1 % maintenance reserve) is what a fee-only fiduciary planner would recommend for a single-income household with kids and modest savings. The Standard tier (36 % + 0.5 % maintenance) matches Fannie Mae conventional underwriting — workable for most stable two-income households. The Aggressive tier (43 % + 0 % maintenance) is the FHA ceiling — what every DTI-only calc on the web shows you, which is why so many buyers stretch into mortgages they can’t maintain. Showing all three lets you see the spread and choose tier honestly. The recommendation row maps your job-stability score to a default tier; override if your situation differs.
Why is maintenance reserve so important?
Because every other affordability calculator ignores it, which is why so many homeowners get blindsided in years 3-7 by HVAC failures, roof replacement, water-heater leaks, foundation work, sewer-line repair. The Bureau of Labor Statistics CES + American Housing Survey put US single-family home maintenance at ~1 % of home price annually as a long-run mean. A $500K home means $5,000/yr or ~$420/mo budgeted for maintenance even if no individual year hits that — averaged over 30 years of ownership, it does. DTI-only calcs that show you ‘you can afford a $640K home’ without budgeting maintenance lure you into a purchase that breaks at year five when the AC dies and you can’t cover the $8K bill. The Conservative tier enforces the discipline.
What does ‘back-end DTI’ mean?
Back-end DTI = (total monthly debt obligations + total monthly housing) / gross monthly income. Total monthly housing = principal + interest + property tax + insurance + HOA + (maintenance, if you’re honest). Front-end DTI ignores existing debts and just looks at housing as % of income. Lenders use back-end as the primary qualifying metric. Conservative 33 %, Standard 36 %, Aggressive 43 % (FHA hard ceiling). FHA used to allow 50 %+ in 2007-2008 — you can guess how that ended. Anything above 43 % is a structural problem masquerading as a lending decision.
Why does job stability matter?
Because mortgage default risk is dominated by income disruption, not headline affordability. A 36 % DTI on a stable W-2 income is workable; a 36 % DTI on commission-only income is a job-loss away from default. A startup employee with 2 years at the firm has a meaningfully higher default probability than a tenured public-school teacher at the same DTI. The job-stability score routes the recommendation: score 1-4 (volatile / new / one-income) caps at Conservative; 5-7 (typical W-2) goes Standard; 8-10 (tenured / stable employer / dual income) can do Aggressive without falling apart on a single income shock. The math doesn’t change between scores — only the recommendation does.
What about PMI?
Private mortgage insurance kicks in at down payments below 20 % and adds ~0.5-1.5 % of loan balance annually to the monthly housing cost. The calculator doesn’t add PMI explicitly — to get a precise number with PMI baked in, increase the insurance-rate input by your expected PMI rate (e.g. add 0.65 % if you have 5 % down). The PMI Removal Calculator handles the cancellation timing once equity hits 20 %. For affordability framing, PMI is a transient cost — you usually drop it in 4-7 years through paydown + appreciation — but it’s real money during the high-debt period and worth modeling.
Why does the Aggressive tier number look so much higher?
Because it’s the number every DTI-only calc shows you. The 43 % back-end DTI ceiling, with no maintenance reserve and the absolute minimum tax-and-insurance allocation, gives the largest possible house. It’s also the version of affordability that puts homeowners in financial distress when one car needs replacing or the AC dies. The stretch spread row in the result is the eye-opener: typically 25-40 % more ‘affordable’ on the Aggressive vs Conservative tier. That delta is real money each year — the calc is showing you what every other affordability tool is hiding.
Should I include rental income in gross income?
Only if you have 24+ months of Schedule E history showing the income survived a tenant turnover and a vacancy gap. Lenders typically count 75 % of gross rental income (the 25 % haircut accounts for vacancy + maintenance) and require 2 years on tax returns. New rentals or recent acquisitions don’t qualify. Same logic for your own affordability framing: rental cash flow is reliable only after multiple year-over-year proofs. Setting income too high produces a false-positive affordability number that breaks when a tenant moves out.
What if I’m buying in a state with no income tax?
Property tax is usually higher (Texas 1.80%, Tennessee 0.71% but with high local assessments, Wyoming 0.61%) — the no-income-tax states fund their budgets through property + sales tax. Plug your local property-tax rate into the calculator and the math accounts for the trade-off. Net affordability in no-income-tax states often reads as roughly equivalent to high-tax states for the same gross income because the property-tax line erodes the affordability gain.
Does this work for adjustable-rate mortgages?
Use the start rate as a fixed-rate proxy for the affordability check, then mentally apply a stress test at +2 % to see what happens at adjustment. The calc is built around fixed-rate amortization. ARMs are workable when you’re confident you’ll move or refinance within the fixed-rate window (5/1, 7/1, 10/1) — but the affordability number should stress-test against the post-adjustment rate. If the home isn’t affordable at the cap, the ARM is a rate gamble, not a financing decision.
What about a 15-year mortgage?
Drop the term input to 15. Monthly P&I rises ~50 % vs 30-year, which cuts max purchase price ~25-30 %. The 15-year saves substantial interest over the loan’s life — typically $150-300K on a $400K loan — but the affordability cap is meaningfully lower. Most buyers under 50 take the 30-year for affordability flexibility and pay it down faster voluntarily; the 30-year is the floor, the 15-year is the ceiling on monthly cost. The Mortgage Calculator runs the side-by-side comparison cleanly.
Why is the calc’s recommended price sometimes much lower than my pre-approval?
Because pre-approvals show the maximum the lender will lend, not what you can sustainably afford. Lenders qualify at 43-50 % DTI in some programs because their concern ends when you make payments + sell to investors. Your concern is making payments + maintaining lifestyle + handling shocks for 30 years. The calc’s Conservative tier is the answer to ‘sustainably afford,’ the Aggressive tier matches the pre-approval, and the spread between the two is the buffer between ‘will lend you this much’ and ‘you should actually borrow.’
Should I buy at all if the calc says I can’t afford the home I want?
Two reframes. First: the calc says what you can sustainably afford at today’s rates and prices — if your career trajectory is steep (medicine, engineering, finance early-career), running the calc again at year 3 or 5 may show very different numbers. Buying smaller now and trading up is a common path. Second: rent isn’t a default-fail option. The Buy vs Rent True Cost calculator (forthcoming) compares both paths — at high prices + high rates + short stay-windows, renting + investing the down payment often beats buying outright. If the math says rent for now, that’s the right answer.