Buying · 7 min read

How much house can you actually afford in 2026?

The number your lender approves and the number you can comfortably live with are not the same number. After fifteen years of writing loans, I can tell you the gap between them is where most buyer regret lives.

Pre-approval letters answer one question: how much risk is the bank willing to take on you? They say nothing about daycare, your car lease, the trip you take every summer, or the fact that you like eating in restaurants. A lender's ceiling is a lending decision. Your budget is a life decision.

Start with the payment, not the price

House hunting starts with a list price, but affordability starts with a monthly payment. Work backwards: what number can leave your account every month — principal, interest, taxes, insurance, and any HOA dues — without you noticing it in your stomach? That payment, at today's rates, implies a price range. Not the other way around.

"A lender's ceiling is a lending decision. Your budget is a life decision."

The cleanest way to see this is to run the numbers yourself, with your real income and your real debts. Use the calculator below — it solves for the price range your budget supports, including taxes, insurance, and mortgage insurance where it applies:

The 28/36 rule is a guardrail, not a goal

Underwriters lean on debt-to-income ratios: housing costs under roughly 28% of gross income, total debts under 36–45% depending on the program. Those are ceilings designed to keep loans repayable — they are not a suggestion that you should spend right up to them. Plenty of happy homeowners sit well below; plenty of stressed ones sit at the line.

And remember the payment is only part of the bill. Budget for maintenance (a common rule of thumb is 1% of the home's value per year), utilities that are usually higher than in a rental, and the one-time costs of closing and moving.