Learnby FirstHome IQ

Calculators

What can I really afford?

Lenders tell you what you can borrow. This shows what you can comfortably afford. Plug in your take-home pay, your monthly spending, and what you want to save — the calculator gives you the housing payment that fits your real life and the home price range that comes with it. Free, no login.

Not sure what to enter?

Spend 10 minutes with our FHIQ Budget Worksheet ↗ to get your real numbers. Then come back and plug in your totals.

Your numbers

Three numbers, your monthly comfort zone. Defaults are illustrative — replace with yours.

Your comfortable home price

$356,207

Given your take-home, your other spending, and what you want to save, you can comfortably afford about $356,207 — that's a monthly housing payment around $2,600.

Where your take-home goes$5,500/mo
Housing47%
Other spending33%
Savings20%

Rule of thumb: housing under ~30% of gross income, savings at least 20%.

Principal + interest
$2,125
Property taxes
$327
Home insurance
$148
Total monthly housing
$2,600
Loan amount
$336,207

Want to know what a lender will approve? Try the Affordability calculator →

How this works

The math: take-home pay minus what you spend on everything else minus what you want to save equals your comfortable monthly housing budget. From there, the calculator works backwards from that budget — subtracting taxes, insurance, and HOA — to the home price (and mortgage) it supports.

This is the consumer-comfort answer. If you'd rather see what a lender would approve at the upper end, that's the Affordability calculator →

What this is and isn't

This is a budgeting tool, not a pre-approval. It helps you arrive at a housing payment you can live with month after month — including saving, life, and unexpected costs. A lender will look at credit, employment, and reserves separately.

Course: Build a Budget →

Thank you to Mike Buczynski for contributing the idea and example spreadsheet that helped us build this calculator.

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