What you'll need
- Gross monthly income (before taxes)
- Total monthly debt payments
- Available down payment
- Expected interest rate
- Credit score range
What you'll get
- Maximum home price — Based on DTI guidelines
- Maximum loan amount — Estimated principal
- Maximum monthly payment — 28/43% rule applied
- Personalized notes — Credit and debt guidance
Maximum home price by income and existing debt
| Annual Income | No Other Debt | With $1,000/mo Debt | With $2,000/mo Debt |
|---|---|---|---|
| $60,000 | $236,738 | $198,035 | $43,222 |
| $80,000 | $308,984 | $308,984 | $154,171 |
| $100,000 | $381,230 | $381,230 | $265,120 |
| $150,000 | $561,845 | $561,845 | $542,493 |
Assumes a $20,000 down payment — this calculator takes a dollar amount, not a percentage — a 6.71% 30-year fixed rate (Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, week ending September 3, 2026), and the lower of a 28% front-end and 43% back-end DTI ceiling. Notice the middle column: the 43% back-end line does not bind until your other debts pass 15% of gross income, so at $80,000 and above the first $1,000/month of debt changes nothing. The 28% housing line is what limits most no-debt households, not the 43% figure.
Pre-qualification, pre-approval, and what a seller actually accepts
These three words get used interchangeably and mean very different things to the person reviewing your offer.
- Pre-qualification is an estimate based on figures you state. Nothing is verified. It is what this calculator does, and it is genuinely useful for setting a budget — but it carries no weight with a seller.
- Pre-approval means a lender has pulled your credit and reviewed income and asset documents, then issued a letter for a specific amount. This is what a listing agent expects to see attached to an offer.
- Underwritten (or “fully underwritten”) approval goes further: a human underwriter has cleared the file, leaving only the property itself — appraisal and title. In a competitive market this is close to cash-equivalent, and it is worth asking your lender whether they offer it.
Use the number below to decide what to shop for. Convert it to a pre-approval before you write an offer, because an offer backed by a pre-qualification is usually the first one a seller sets aside.
What a lender is actually checking
A pre-approval decision comes down to four things, and only one of them is your income.
- Debt-to-income ratio. The one that decides the size of the loan. Lenders look at the housing payment as a share of gross monthly income, and at total debt payments including that housing payment. Conventional loans commonly go to about 45% total, and sometimes to 50% where credit and reserves are strong. Government-backed programs can stretch further with compensating factors.
- Credit score. This sets the rate more than the approval. A stronger score lowers both the interest rate and the mortgage insurance premium if you are putting down less than 20%, which is why a few points either side of a tier boundary can be worth more than a larger down payment.
- Assets and reserves. Not just the down payment and closing costs, but what is left afterwards. Reserves are counted in months of housing payment, and they are often what allows a higher DTI to be approved.
- Income stability. Two years in the same line of work is the usual benchmark. Salaried income is straightforward; self-employment, commission and bonus income are typically averaged over two years, and a declining trend is averaged down rather than up.
Note that lenders work from gross income while you live on net. A number that clears underwriting comfortably can still be more than you want to spend — see what you can afford as distinct from what you can borrow.
Why the approved figure often differs from the estimate
Almost every gap between a pre-qualification estimate and a real pre-approval comes from how lenders count things:
- Overtime and bonus. Counted only with a documented history, and averaged. A strong recent year on its own usually does not count.
- Self-employment. Assessed on net income after business deductions, not on revenue. Aggressive deductions reduce taxable income and reduce borrowing power with it.
- Student loans in deferment. Frequently counted at a calculated percentage of the balance rather than at the $0 you currently pay.
- Co-signed debt. If your name is on it, it is usually your debt for DTI purposes, even when someone else pays it.
- Property costs. Taxes, insurance, HOA dues and mortgage insurance all sit inside the housing ratio, so a high-tax county or a condo with large dues reduces the loan you qualify for at the same income.
Shopping lenders, and protecting the approval once you have it
Comparing lenders does not wreck your credit. Scoring models treat multiple mortgage inquiries made inside a short shopping window as a single event — commonly 14 to 45 days depending on the model — so the practical advice is to concentrate your applications rather than to avoid them. One inquiry and six inquiries in the same fortnight look much alike.
A pre-approval letter typically holds for 60 to 90 days, because the credit report and income documents behind it go stale. Expect to refresh documents if your search runs long.
Between approval and closing, the file is re-checked — often days before completion. Do not open new credit, finance a car, change jobs, or move large sums between accounts without telling your loan officer first. Undocumented deposits are one of the most common causes of a delayed closing, and a new monthly payment can push DTI past the threshold that approved you in the first place.
State guides
How this varies by state
Property taxes, insurance costs, first-time buyer programs, and closing costs differ significantly across states. See local data for your state.
California
Texas
Florida
New York
Illinois
Pennsylvania
Ohio
Georgia
North Carolina
Michigan
New Jersey
Virginia
Washington
Arizona
Colorado
Tennessee
This calculator finds the smaller of two payment ceilings — 28% of gross income, or 43% of gross income minus your existing debts — and prices a 30-year loan against whichever one binds. A low- or no-debt household is usually capped by the 28% line, not the 43% one, even though 43% is the number most people watching their DTI keep an eye on.
Why the smaller number wins
The module computes two independent ceilings from the same gross monthly income — a front-end maximum at 28% and a back-end maximum at 43% minus your monthly debts — and then takes whichever is lower as the actual payment it prices a loan against. That minimum of the two step is easy to miss: it means the front-end 28% line, not the more commonly cited 43% back-end line, is the one that typically limits a low-debt borrower's result.
Worked example — where the 28% line actually bites
What triggers each note
Beyond the headline numbers, the module runs four independent checks and appends plain-language notes only when a condition is actually met — it does not narrate results that pass cleanly.
- ·Credit score "poor". The only input that flips the calculator's overall likelyQualifies flag to false. Its own copy pins this band below a 580 score and suggests FHA financing with 10% down as an alternative path.
- ·Credit score "fair". Does not block the result, but adds a note pointing at the 580–639 range, FHA availability, and an expectation of a higher rate than the one you entered.
- ·High existing debt. Fires when monthly debts exceed 20% of gross income — a separate, stricter check than the 43% back-end ceiling used in the main calculation. A household can clear the 43% test and still trip this note.
- ·Down payment vs. loan size. Fires when the down payment is under 3.5% of the maximum loan amount the calculator computed — not 3.5% of home price. In the $9,000-income example above, that threshold is about $13,650 (3.5% of the ~$390,000 max loan); a $10,000 down payment falls under it and triggers a reminder to budget 2–3% of home price for closing costs on top.
Why this number can move once a lender looks
Every input here is self-reported and unverified — that is the definition of a prequalification rather than a preapproval. Three gaps specifically separate this estimate from a lender's formal number:
- The payment is principal and interest only. No property tax, homeowners insurance, HOA dues or mortgage insurance is added, so a lender's real qualifying payment — and therefore real DTI — will be higher than what this page shows.
- The term is fixed at 30 years inside the module. A 15-year quote, or an ARM, would price a different payment against the same 28%/43% ceilings and change which one binds.
- The credit-score input is a self-selected band, not a pulled score. A lender's underwriting will use an actual score, and can apply overlays this calculator has no way to model.
There's a ceiling worth checking independently of any of this: the 2026 FHFA conforming loan limit of $832,750 for a one-unit home in most counties, rising to $1,249,125 in designated high-cost areas. If the maximum loan amount this calculator produces is above that line for your county, the result describes a jumbo scenario, not a conforming one — a different set of underwriting rules than the flat 28%/43% guideline this tool is built on.
One more thing worth flagging if a higher price range is in play: mortgage interest is only deductible on the first $750,000 of acquisition debt under current IRS rules (Publication 936) — a maximum loan amount above that figure means part of the interest on it would not be deductible at all, which is worth knowing before treating a large prequalification number as fully affordable.
Methodology
Front-end (28%) and back-end (43%) ceilings, the minimum-of-the-two payment rule, the fixed 360-month amortization, and every note-trigger condition (credit band, 20% debt-to-income, 3.5% down-payment-to-loan ratio) are read directly from this calculator's own module. The worked example uses Freddie Mac's PMMS 30-year average for the week ending September 3, 2026. Conforming loan limit and mortgage interest deduction cap figures are FHFA's 2026 announcement and IRS Publication 936, respectively.
Sources
- Freddie Mac — Primary Mortgage Market Survey, week ending September 3, 2026 — accessed 2026-09-05
- FHFA — Conforming Loan Limit Values for 2026 — accessed 2026-09-05
- IRS Publication 936 — Home Mortgage Interest Deduction (2025) — accessed 2026-09-05
About this calculator
What is the difference between pre-qualification and pre-approval?
Pre-qualification is an informal estimate of how much you might borrow, based on self-reported income and debts. Pre-approval involves a formal application, credit check, and document verification — it's a much stronger signal to sellers. This calculator provides a pre-qualification estimate only.
How much mortgage can I qualify for with a $100,000 income?
With $100,000 annual income ($8,333/month), you can typically afford up to $2,333/month in housing costs (28% front-end ratio). At 7% interest, that's roughly a $350,000 mortgage — or a $400,000 home with a 12.5% down payment. Existing debts reduce this amount.
Does pre-qualification affect my credit score?
This calculator does not affect your credit score — it's purely a math exercise. Formal pre-qualification or pre-approval from a lender may involve a soft pull (no impact) or hard pull (small temporary impact). Ask your lender which type they use.
What documents do I need for mortgage pre-approval?
Typical pre-approval documents include: 2 years of W-2s and tax returns, recent pay stubs (30 days), 2–3 months of bank and investment statements, photo ID, and your Social Security number for a credit pull. Self-employed borrowers also need business tax returns and a year-to-date profit and loss statement.
How long does mortgage pre-approval last?
Most pre-approval letters are valid for 60–90 days. After that, lenders typically require updated income documents and may re-pull credit. If your home search extends beyond 90 days, ask your lender to refresh your pre-approval letter — it's usually a quick update, not a full new application.