How much house can a household afford at today's mortgage rates? The home affordability calculator works it out from income, debts, down payment and the rate. Then it shows how the answer moves when rates change.
Its example household earns $100,000 a year, pays $500 a month on other debts and has $40,000 to put down. At 7.4%, Freddie Mac's average 30-year rate for the week of October 15, 2026, that household can afford a home of about $309,000. That price leaves room for property tax and insurance.
How the budget is set
The calculator uses the 28/36 rule, a common lending guideline. Housing costs can take up to 28% of gross monthly income. Housing plus all other debt payments can take up to 36%. The budget is whichever limit is lower.
For the example, gross income is about $8,333 a month, and 28% of that is $2,333. The 36% limit is $3,000, less $500 of debts, or $2,500. So the 28% limit applies, and the $500 of debts does not shrink the budget at all.
At about $309,000, the $2,333 splits like this:
| Monthly cost | Amount |
|---|---|
| Principal and interest | $1,861 |
| Property tax | $232 |
| Home insurance | $129 |
| Mortgage insurance | $112 |
| Total | $2,333 |
Mortgage insurance appears because $40,000 is less than 20% of the price. The calculator adds it at 0.5% of the loan a year whenever the down payment is under 20%.
How rates change the answer
Higher rates put more of each payment toward interest, so the same budget buys less house. For the example household, a rate one point lower, 6.4%, raises the budget to about $332,000, roughly 7% more house. A rate one point higher, 8.4%, cuts it to about $289,000.
| 30-year rate | Home you can afford |
|---|---|
| 5% | $369,000 |
| 6% | $342,000 |
| 6.27% (a year ago) | $335,000 |
| 7% | $318,000 |
| 7.4% (October 15, 2026) | $309,000 |
| 8% | $296,000 |
| 9% | $277,000 |
At the record-low average of 2.65% in January 2021, the same monthly budget would have bought about $447,000. The rate later climbed to 7.79% in October 2023. On the calculator, a slider lets you try any rate from 2% to 12%, and a chart shows the price you could pay at each one.
The loan term matters too. A 15-year loan at Freddie Mac's 6.71% average lowers the budget to about $260,000, because the loan is repaid twice as fast. In exchange, it costs far less interest over its life.
A rough rule by income
With 10% down and no other debts, the calculator puts buying power at roughly 3.0 times yearly income at 7.4%. That is about $225,000 on $75,000 of income, $300,000 on $100,000 and $450,000 on $150,000. At 6%, the $100,000 household could afford about $336,000. At 5%, it could afford about $366,000. Other monthly debts lower these figures.
What the calculator leaves out
Closing costs, maintenance and utilities are not included. Property tax defaults to 0.9% of the home's value a year, about the US average, and insurance to 0.5%. Both can be changed to match your area. Lenders also weigh your credit score, savings, job history and loan program. Many approve higher ratios, up to about 45% to 50% of income for some loans, but the page notes that the 28/36 rule leaves room in the budget for everything else. It also notes that nobody can reliably predict rates or home prices. A lower rate raises your budget, but prices can rise at the same time, and refinancing later is possible but comes with closing costs.
Where the figures come from
The rates are Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey averages, read from FRED. They are 7.4% for 30 years and 6.71% for 15 years in the week of October 15, 2026; 6.27% a year earlier, on October 16, 2025; the 2.65% low of January 7, 2021; and the 7.79% peak of October 26, 2023. The 0.9% property tax default matches ATTOM's national effective rate on single-family homes in 2025.
Use it on your own site
The home affordability calculator is free to embed on a blog or website with copy-and-paste code, with no ads or tracking. Here is how to embed it.
Source: Freddie Mac via FRED, weeks of October 15, 2026, October 16, 2025, October 26, 2023 and January 7, 2021; ATTOM, 2025 tax data. Figures are educational estimates, not financial advice.