How Much House Can I Afford?
Enter your income, debts, and down payment to get a realistic home-buying budget — computed with the same 28/36 rule lenders use, itemized down to taxes, insurance, and PMI. Then see something no other calculator shows: every state, and every city in it, where that budget actually buys the median home.
Car loans, student loans, card minimums — not rent or utilities.
Cash you'll put down. Under 20% of the price adds PMI.
30-year fixed averaged ~6.6% in July 2026.
Cap on total debt payments; housing always stays under 28% of gross income.
Advanced: taxes, insurance, PMI, HOA
Enter your income above to see what you can afford.
Where your budget buys the median home
How this calculator works
The budget comes from the 28/36 rule, the guideline used by lenders and by every major affordability calculator. Your housing costs — mortgage principal and interest, property taxes, homeowners insurance, PMI, and HOA dues — should stay under 28% of gross monthly income, and your total debt payments, housing included, under 36% (adjustable up to the 43% many lenders and the 50% some programs allow). The calculator applies whichever cap is tighter for you, subtracts the recurring ownership costs, and converts the remaining monthly amount into a loan at your interest rate. Your maximum price is that loan plus your down payment.
Because property tax, insurance, and PMI all scale with the price of the home, they are solved together with it rather than bolted on afterward — the breakdown you see is the actual monthly cost of the most expensive home the rule allows. When your down payment is under 20% of that price, PMI is added automatically; at 20% or above it disappears.
What a salary buys at today's rates
With 20% down, no other monthly debts, and a 6.6% 30-year mortgage, here is what the 28% rule allows at different household incomes:
| Household income | Max home price | Monthly housing budget |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $182,500 | $1,167/mo |
| $75,000 | $274,000 | $1,750/mo |
| $100,000 | $365,000 | $2,333/mo |
| $150,000 | $547,500 | $3,500/mo |
| $200,000 | $730,000 | $4,667/mo |
For context, the median American home — valued at $332,700 — requires a household income of roughly $91,100 under the same assumptions. Our salary needed to buy a home ranking runs that figure for every state, and the affordability ranking shows where prices sit closest to local paychecks.
Why "where" is half the answer
The same budget is a mansion in one state and a starter condo in another: median home values across the 50 states span more than a fourfold range, and across cities the spread is wider still. That is why this calculator checks your result against the median home value of every state and roughly 20,000 US cities from the Census Bureau's ACS estimates — turning "you can afford $350,000" into a concrete list of places where $350,000 buys the typical home. Half of every market's homes cost less than its median, so a budget near a city's median means real choices there, not just its cheapest listings.
Once you have a budget, the income percentile calculator shows how your household income ranks in any of those places, and every city page on this site breaks down the local incomes, home values, and demographics behind the medians.
Methodology and limits
Default assumptions: a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate (about the Freddie Mac national average in July 2026 — editable, and worth updating if rates have moved), property tax of 0.90% of home value per year (the national effective average; states range from about 0.3% to over 2%), homeowners insurance of 0.64% of value per year, and PMI of 0.60% of the loan when the down payment is under 20%. All are adjustable in the advanced settings.
This is a budgeting guideline, not a preapproval: lenders also weigh credit score, reserves, and income stability, and the 28/36 rule says nothing about closing costs (typically 2–5% of the price) or the cash cushion — commonly two to six months of payments — worth keeping after closing. Median home values come from the Census Bureau's ACS 5-Year Estimates and describe owner-estimated values over a recent period, not current listing prices; treat the "where you can afford" list as a map of relative price levels, not a real-estate search. Full data detail is on the methodology page.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much house can I afford on a $100,000 salary?
Roughly $365,000 with a 20% down payment, no other monthly debts, and a 6.6% 30-year mortgage — that keeps the all-in monthly payment near $2,333, or 28% of gross income. Monthly debts reduce that figure quickly: every $100 of car payments or student loans cuts roughly $15,000 of home price under the 36% total-debt cap.
What is the 28/36 rule?
A lending guideline used across the industry: housing costs (mortgage principal and interest, property taxes, insurance, PMI, HOA dues) should stay under 28% of gross monthly income, and total debt payments — housing plus car loans, student loans, and card minimums — under 36%. This calculator applies whichever of the two limits binds first.
What debt-to-income ratio do lenders allow?
Most conventional lenders prefer a total DTI of 36% and commonly approve up to 43% — the threshold long used for qualified mortgages. Some programs stretch to 50% with strong credit and reserves. This calculator defaults to 36% and lets you test the higher ratios; anything above 36% is a budget many households find genuinely stretched.
Can I buy a house with less than 20% down?
Yes — conventional loans allow as little as 3–5% down, and FHA loans 3.5%. Below 20%, lenders add private mortgage insurance (PMI), typically 0.46%–1.5% of the loan per year depending on credit score and down payment. This calculator applies PMI automatically when your down payment is under 20% of the computed price, and removes it when it isn't.
How much are property taxes and homeowners insurance?
Nationally, property taxes average about 0.90% of a home's value per year (state averages range from roughly 0.3% to over 2%), and homeowners insurance about 0.64% of the home's value. Both are editable in the advanced settings — worth doing, because high-tax states can shave tens of thousands off a budget.
Should I use gross or net income?
Gross (pre-tax) household income — that is what lenders underwrite against, and what the 28/36 percentages refer to. Because the rule is set against gross pay, the resulting budget already leaves room for taxes; just remember that two households with the same gross income can have very different take-home pay.
How much salary do you need to buy the median US home?
About $91,100 a year for the national median home value of $332,700, with 20% down at 6.6%. Our salary needed to buy a home ranking runs the same math for every state.