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Take-home pay vs. a house

Can I Afford This House?

A planning screen for a specific house, or a comfortable / reasonable / aggressive price from take-home pay, debts, and the most recent national average rate.

Your numbers

Home affordability

A planning screen for whether a house fits take-home pay. Not a lender yes or no.
FREDDIE MAC PMMS

30-year 6.71% · 15-year 6.04%National weekly average · survey week of Sep 3, 2026 · A newer release is expected. Check Freddie Mac for the latest week before relying on it.

$After taxes. Not gross salary.
$Car loans, student loans, cards
$Food, transport, childcare, and the rest
$
$
%National weekly average. Type a quote to replace it.
Taxes, insurance, HOA and upkeep

Every one has a working default. Filling them in gives the payment a lender would quote.

$Optional
$Enter an annual quote or planning estimate
$Optional
% / yearShare of the home price. 1% is a planning default.
%Share of the price, on top of the down payment

Use the Insurance Cost Calculator to prepare an annual homeowners budget, then enter that amount above. Replace it with a carrier quote when available.

This house looks

Risky34.3% of take-home would go to housing
INCOMPLETE

No property tax or home insurance enteredThe monthly housing figure below leaves those costs out. A real payment will be higher.

Modeled monthly housing cost$2,400.34P&I plus the tax, insurance, HOA, PMI, and repair figures used
6-month emergency fund$28,802Housing, debts, and other expenses
Cash to close$92,000Down payment plus closing-cost rate
Comfortable home priceabout $311,000Our guideline: ≤ 25% of take-home
This house$400,00080% loan-to-value
Above comfortableabout $89,000Versus the comfortable price

Housing, debts, or leftover cash is outside the stretch caps. A lender might still say yes. This screen would not call it safe.

Cut the price by $89,178 to reach the comfortable band with this down payment.

Or raise the down payment by $100,682 and keep this price.

What if things go wrong?
  • Rate +1 pointA higher quote before closing; an existing fixed rate stays fixed+$216.67
  • Property tax +15%No tax was entered, so this line stays $0+$0.00
  • $8,000 repairIf a 6-month essential-cost reserve was already funded4.3 months left
  • Take-home pay −20%Housing cost held constant42.9% of pay
How we got this
  1. Modeled monthly housing cost$2,067.01 P&I + tax, insurance, HOA, PMI, and repairs$2,400.35
  2. Share of take-home$7,000.00 take-home this month34.3%
  3. Comfortable home priceCut the price by $89,178 or raise the down payment by $100,682.$310,822
  4. This house vs comfortableAbove the comfortable price$89,178
What we assumed
  • This is a planning screen, not a lender approval, a quote, or advice to buy or not buy.
  • Take-home pay is used on purpose. The classic 28/36 mortgage rules are based on gross pay and would look looser.
  • Comfortable means housing stays at or under 25% of take-home, housing plus listed debts at or under 33%, and at least 20% left after housing, debts, and the other expenses you typed.
  • Stretch is still inside 32% housing and 40% debts. Above that, or if the leftover is too thin, the screen is Risky.
  • The default interest rate is a national weekly average. Local quotes, credit, points, and fees differ.
  • Taxes, insurance, and HOA dues are only the amounts you type. They are not looked up by ZIP or county.
  • PMI is omitted. Typical conventional loans require it when the down payment is under 20%.
  • Repairs use 1% of the home price per year. That is a planning default, not a contractor bid.
  • Closing costs use 3% of the price plus the down payment. Shop a loan estimate for the real cash to close.
  • The stress cases are hypothetical: rate +1 point, property tax +15%, an $8,000 repair against a 6-month essential-cost reserve, and take-home pay −20%.
Technical details

Method home-affordability-v1.0.0Data freddie-mac-pmms-2026-09-03-v1

Guide

How “can I afford this house?” is modeled here

CostAnswer editorialIndependent calculator publisher

CostAnswer compares a house payment with take-home pay, or works backward from take-home pay to a comfortable / stretch / aggressive price. The bands are our planning thresholds, not a debt-to-income underwrite.

Take-home, not the 28/36 gross rule

Classic affordability rules use gross income. This page uses take-home because that is the money that actually pays the mortgage, tax, insurance, and remaining debts. A household with a large 401(k) deferral has less take-home than the salary implies.

Comfortable, stretch, and aggressive bands are CostAnswer thresholds on net pay. A lender may approve a loan that this page labels aggressive, or deny one this page labels comfortable. Credit, reserves, and property type are not in the model.

The payment inside the band

The housing cost uses the same amortizing math as the mortgage calculator, plus the tax, insurance, HOA, and debt payments you type. The rate starts from the Freddie Mac national average unless you override it.

Questions about this calculator

How much house can I afford on my take-home pay?

Enter take-home (or a salary the page can estimate), debts, down payment, and rate. The page prints comfortable, stretch, and aggressive prices from those inputs. They are planning bands, not an approval.

Why not use 28% of gross income?

Gross-pay rules ignore tax and pretax deductions. Two households with the same salary can have very different take-home. This model starts from net pay on purpose.

Does a lender use these bands?

No. Underwriters use their own DTI, credit, and residual-income tests. Treat this as a household cash test.

Terms used here

Take-home pay
Pay after the taxes this site models, or a net amount you type.
DTI
Debt-to-income ratio used by lenders on gross income. This page does not compute a lender DTI.
Stretch band
A CostAnswer planning range above comfortable and below aggressive. Not a product name from a bank.

Practical tips

  • Include car payments and minimum credit-card payments in debts, or the house will look cheaper than it is.
  • If you only have a salary, estimate take-home first on the salary-after-tax page.
  • Run a higher rate as a stress case before you bid.

Limits and caveats

  • Planning model, not a pre-approval or financial advice.
  • Maintenance, utilities, and closing costs are not the monthly housing cost unless you added them.

Results are for information. They are not legal, tax, medical, or financial advice. How the math is maintained · Report a wrong figure.

Engine notes

Rounding, versioning, and omissions that sit beside the guide rather than repeating it.

  • Modeled monthly housing cost. Principal and interest use the same fixed-rate formula as the mortgage-payment tool. Property tax, insurance, and HOA are only what you type, so leaving them blank leaves them out of the total rather than making them zero. PMI is an optional flat 0.5% of the loan per year when the down payment is under 20%. Repairs use the yearly percent you enter, defaulting to 1% of the price.
  • Comfortable, stretch, risky. Comfortable keeps housing at or under 25% of take-home, housing plus the debts you listed at or under 33%, and at least 20% left after housing, debts, and other expenses. Stretch still fits 32% housing and 40% debts. Above that, or if leftover cash is too thin, the screen is Risky. These caps are for take-home pay. They are stricter than the classic 28/36 rules, which use gross pay.
  • Stress cases and the path back. The shock lines reprice the same loan at +1 rate point, raise typed property tax 15%, spend $8,000 from a 6-month essential-cost reserve, and cut take-home 20%. The comfortable home price is the inverse of the same payment math. A suggested price cut or extra down payment is the smallest whole-dollar change that lands back in the comfortable band.

Calculation receipt

What each number here is

The arithmetic is decided by your inputs. Official data only supplies a starting value, and anything you type replaces it.

OBSERVEDFreddie Mac PMMS
Only a starting value. A figure from your own bill or quote replaces it and is used instead.
MODELEDThe affordability bands
Comfortable, reasonable and stretched are CostAnswer thresholds on housing and total-debt ratios. They are not a lender’s underwriting rule and no lender has agreed to them.
USER ENTEREDA figure you enter
A figure you typed. It replaces our default and is used exactly as given.

Sources

Where this data comes from

Freddie Mac PMMSSource: Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS), national weekly averages for 30-year and 15-year fixed-rate mortgages. Snapshot freddie-mac-pmms-2026-09-03-v1.Freddie Mac · Sep 3, 2026 ↗Consumer Financial Protection BureauHow mortgage payments, DTI, and PMI work. This tool does not apply CFPB’s gross-pay 28/36 rule as a pass/fail.Official guidance ↗

Next

People working through pay and take-home and buying a home usually need these next.

MoneyMortgage paymentMonthly principal and interest from the home price, down payment, term, and the most recent Freddie Mac national average rate. You can type a quote instead.MoneyConforming loan limitThe FHFA loan limit for your county and unit count, and whether a given loan amount is conforming, high-balance, or jumbo.MoneyHourly to salaryTurn an hourly wage into weekly, monthly, and yearly pay before taxes. Overtime has its own line.MoneyCost of livingEstimated modeled monthly living costs for a U.S. city, metro, or state using HUD Fair Market Rent, USDA Food Plans, and official regional context. This is not a proprietary index.MoneySalary after taxEstimate federal income tax, FICA, and state income tax on a U.S. salary, then see take-home by year, month, and paycheck.MoneyPaycheckEstimate take-home pay per paycheck by spreading a full-year federal, FICA, and state tax estimate across your pay periods. Your employer withholds from a W-4 and IRS tables instead, so a real stub will differ.