How to use our mortgage income qualification calculator.
This calculator allows you to do a "What if?" calculation based on costs you input and can help determine how much income a lender will want you to have to manage these costs under traditional mortgage qualification rules.
It might help you to determine if you can qualify for a refinance, especially if your income is lower since you originally got your mortgage. If you're not sure how much monthly mortgage Principal and Interest payment to enter, you can generate this number using our standard mortgage calculator.
Under traditional debt-to-income (DTI) ratios, the income figure generated by the calculator should be sufficient to cover these monthly costs. As long as your total documentable income is at or above the higher of the two figures, you should be able to handle the monthly housing payment and the rest of your obligations, and a lender will likely qualify you for the mortgage amount derived from the calculation.
For a calculation that starts with your income and reveals how much mortgage you can borrow and home you can buy, see How Much House Can I Afford?
Learn how much income you'll need to cover monthly costs
Using the example figures provided, you'll essentially be saying "If I'm covering a mortgage payment of $1,000, property taxes of $2,200 per year, $400 in annual insurance costs, $300 in monthly debt obligations and I wanted to buy a $175,000 home with a $10,000 down payment ($165,000 loan amount), how much income will I need to handle all of these costs?
In the results, the 28% ratio is based only on PITI (Principal, Interest, Taxes and Insurance). This is generally called the Housing or "front end" Ratio, and if you have no other debts the 28% income shown will be sufficient to cover your housing costs.
The 36% ratio income is based on your total housing and monthly debt costs. This is PITI plus the debts you entered and is called the "back end" or total debt-to-income ratio.