Home Affordability Calculator

Yes, the RoughTools Home Affordability Calculator is completely free with no account, subscription, or hidden fees. You can run unlimited affordability calculations — adjusting income, debts, down payment, and interest rate — at no cost. RoughTools is funded through non-intrusive advertising, which keeps every calculator permanently free for first-time buyers, upgraders, and real estate professionals alike.

No account, email address, or registration is required at any stage. Enter your income, debts, and down payment, and your maximum affordable home price is calculated instantly. There is no paywall on any results, no upgrade required to see the full breakdown, and no data stored about your income or financial situation. The tool is entirely anonymous and free to use without any form of registration.

Yes. All calculations run entirely within your browser using JavaScript. Your income, debt payments, and down payment figures are never transmitted to RoughTools servers, never logged, and never shared with third parties including lenders, advertisers, or data brokers. Once you close the browser tab, all data is gone. You can use this tool to get a realistic budget without any privacy concern about your financial details being exposed.

Yes, the calculator is fully responsive and works on all modern smartphones and tablets. All input fields are touch-friendly and optimised for mobile keyboards. The results panel and payment breakdown display clearly on small screens. This is particularly useful when you are at an open house or browsing listings online and want to quickly check whether a particular property falls within your affordable range based on your current income and debts.

The Home Affordability Calculator works in all modern browsers: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Safari, Opera, and Brave — on both desktop and mobile platforms. No browser extensions or plugins are required. The calculator uses standard JavaScript that runs natively in every current browser. Internet Explorer is not supported. For the best experience on any device, use any current version of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge.

The calculator uses the industry-standard 28/36 DTI rule and the standard mortgage amortisation formula, which are the same methods used by most conventional lenders in the United States. The 43% back-end DTI limit is the standard threshold used by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac qualifying guidelines. Actual lender approval depends on additional factors not modelled here: credit score, employment history, asset reserves, loan type (FHA vs conventional), and individual lender overlays. Use this as a budgeting guide, not a loan pre-approval.

Once the page has fully loaded in your browser, the calculator runs entirely in JavaScript and does not require a live internet connection to perform calculations. You can adjust inputs and view updated results offline. The initial page load requires an internet connection to download the page assets. For most users, the page loads in under two seconds and works seamlessly on both high-speed and low-bandwidth connections, including mobile data.

To use the calculator: (1) Enter your gross annual household income before taxes. (2) Enter your total existing monthly debt payments — car loans, student loans, credit card minimums, and any other recurring debt. (3) Enter your planned down payment amount. (4) Set the current mortgage interest rate and your preferred loan term. (5) Enter estimated property tax rate and homeowners insurance costs for your target area. (6) Click Calculate — the tool shows your maximum affordable home price based on lender DTI limits, along with estimated monthly payment breakdown.

RoughTools Home Affordability Calculator applies both the 28% front-end DTI limit (housing costs vs income) and the 43% back-end DTI limit (all debts vs income), and uses whichever constraint is binding for your situation — giving a more conservative and realistic result than calculators that only apply one ratio. It also includes property tax and insurance in the housing cost calculation, which many simple calculators omit, leading to overestimates of affordable price. All results are private and never shared with lenders.

To report a bug or request a feature — such as FHA loan limits, VA loan modelling, HOA fee inclusion, PMI calculation, or state-specific tax presets — use the feedback link in the site footer or visit the RoughTools contact page. When reporting a bug, include the income and debt figures you entered, the browser and OS you were using, and the result you expected versus what appeared. Feature requests for jumbo loan thresholds, co-borrower income, or multi-scenario comparison are welcomed and reviewed regularly.

Debt-to-income ratio (DTI) is the percentage of your gross monthly income that goes toward debt payments. Lenders use two DTI limits: the front-end ratio (housing costs only) typically capped at 28%, and the back-end ratio (all monthly debts including housing) typically capped at 43%. If your existing debts are high, the back-end ratio is the binding constraint and reduces your maximum home price. Paying off existing debts before applying for a mortgage directly increases your home affordability by improving your DTI.

The minimum down payment depends on the loan type: conventional loans require as little as 3% (with PMI), FHA loans require 3.5% with a 580+ credit score, VA loans (for veterans) require 0%, and USDA loans (for eligible rural properties) also require 0%. A 20% down payment eliminates the need for private mortgage insurance (PMI), which can add $100–$200 or more to monthly payments. A larger down payment reduces the loan amount and monthly payment, directly increasing affordability for higher-priced homes.