Nashville, TN(615) 555-0182hello@willowcreek.exampleDemonstration site — not a lender
Willow CreekHome Finance
Run the numbers

The bench

How much house, and what is stopping you

Income, debts and cash in, a defensible price out — and a plain statement of which of the three constraints is the one actually holding the number down.

AffordabilityIllustrative figures onlyShareable as a link

Your numbers

Assumptions you can change

It recalculates as you type — there is no submit button, and nothing is sent anywhere.

Defensible maximum price

$440,750

Conventional guidelines, 10% down

The weave of the payment

Principal & interest$2,507.25
Property tax$404.02
Home insurance$146.92
Mortgage insurance$181.81
HOA dues—

What binds

The housing ratio binds. Your payment alone reaches 36% of gross income before your other debts matter. Clearing debt would not move this number; a bigger down payment or a cheaper tax bill would.

Housing ratio allows
$440,750
Total debt ratio allows
$544,135
Your cash allows
$461,538
Monthly payment at that price
$3,240.00
Housing ratio at that price
36.0%
Total debt ratio at that price
41.6%
Down payment needed
$44,075
Closing costs at 3%
$13,222
Cash to close
$57,297
Balance, and interest paid to date
$0$200k$400kyr 5yr 10yr 15yr 20yr 25yr 30
Balance owedInterest paid to date

What this is doing

  • Fannie Mae’s automated underwriting caps total debt-to-income at 50%. The 36% housing figure is the classic manual benchmark, not a hard cap.
  • A guideline is not an approval. Underwriting also looks at reserves, employment history, credit depth and the property itself, and a lender can decline inside every ratio shown here.
  • Every figure here is illustrative. It is generated from the numbers you typed using published rules, and it is not a rate quote, a pre-qualification, or an offer of credit.

The rule this page applies

Automated conventional underwriting caps total debt-to-income at 50%. FHA manual benchmarks are 31% housing and 43% total. VA sets no cap at all and tests residual income instead, using 41% as the point where the cushion must be exceeded by 20%. USDA uses 29% and 41%.

Source: Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-6-02 · HUD Handbook 4000.1 · 38 CFR 36.4340 · USDA HB-1-3555

Share this scenario

Your inputs are the state, and the state is the URL. Copying the link copies the exact scenario on screen.

Questions people ask about this one

Why is this number lower than the one my bank quoted?

Bank pre-qualification tools often ignore taxes, insurance and mortgage insurance, or use a national average for them. This one charges all three at the rates you entered, which is what will actually appear on your statement.

Should I borrow the maximum?

The maximum is the largest loan a guideline would tolerate, not the largest one you should carry. It leaves nothing for maintenance, which runs around 1% of the value a year, and nothing for the months when something breaks.

Why does VA show a bigger number?

Because VA has no monthly mortgage insurance and no DTI cap. The real VA test is residual income — a dollar figure by region and family size that must be left over after the mortgage, taxes, debts and maintenance. This calculator does not model residual income, so treat the VA figure as the loosest of the four.

Take this scenario to a person

Marked fields are required. Everything else is optional — a broker only needs enough to call you back and know what you are asking about.

This form does not send anything. It validates what you type and shows a confirmation. Nothing is stored in a database, nothing is emailed, and nobody will call you. Willow Creek Home Finance is a fictional company built to demonstrate a design system.

The rest of the bench

Monthly payment

Principal, interest, taxes, insurance, mortgage insurance and HOA — drawn as five separate threads, not folded into one number.

Amortisation

The full schedule, switchable month-wise and year-wise, with a running total and the crossover month called out.

Refinance

Costs divided by monthly saving is the answer most sites give, and it ignores the fact that a new 30-year term restarts the clock. Both numbers are shown here.

Extra payment

A recurring extra, a one-off lump sum, or both — against the interest they remove and the months they take off the end.

Rent vs buy

Both households start with the same cash. Whichever is cheaper in a given month invests the difference; whichever is dearer draws it down. That symmetry is the whole argument.

FHA MIP

The upfront premium, the annual premium, and the part almost every calculator gets wrong: whether it ever comes off.

VA purchase

The VA funding fee changes with the down payment and with whether it is your first use of the entitlement. Exempt borrowers pay none of it.

VA refinance

An IRRRL carries a 0.50% funding fee; a VA cash-out carries 2.15% or 3.30%. Both are shown against a true break-even.

Points

One point is one percent of the loan, paid today, for a lower rate for as long as you keep it. The only question that matters is how long that is.

HELOC

Interest-only while you draw, then a fully amortising payment that can be several times larger. Both are shown, because the second one is the surprise.

DSCR

Debt-service coverage divides the rent the property brings in by what the property costs to carry. Most lenders want 1.20 or better.

Fix & flip

Acquisition, rehab, points, interest, holding costs and selling costs against the after-repair value — with the cash you actually have to put in.