Finance

Car & Home Affordability

This gives you a blunt estimate of what looks comfortable, stretch, or risky based on income, debts, rates, and down payment setup. Debt now scales against income instead of acting like a flat hit.

Vehicle

Car affordability

Comfortable
Down payment input

Comfortable car price

$69,706

Tested price $35,000 with down payment $5,000 and estimated rate 8.2%.

Comfortable

$69,706

Stretch

$97,829

Risky

$129,969

Amount financed

$30,000

Remaining after debts + car

$5,924

Debt + car ratio

16.4%

Car only: 10.0%Total with debts: 16.4%

All-in monthly car cost

$708.93

10.0% of gross monthly income$7,083 income

Mortgage

Home affordability

Stretch
Down payment input

Comfortable home price

$262,092

Tested price $300,000 with down payment $25,000 and estimated rate 7.1%.

Comfortable

$262,092

Stretch

$346,413

Risky

$420,194

Amount financed

$275,000

Remaining after debts + housing

$4,395

Back-end ratio

37.9%

Housing only: 31.6%Total with debts: 37.9%

Principal and interest

$1,848

Total monthly housing

$2,238

Quick notes

How to read this

Comfortable is the number that is a lot less likely to make your month feel stupid.

Stretch means possible, but you will feel it more.

Risky means the payment starts getting too aggressive for normal breathing room.

Important

Reality check

Car math now uses debt plus car cost as a percent of income, so the same debt hurts more at lower income and less at higher income.

Home math uses front-end and back-end ratios, which is a lot closer to how real affordability gets judged.

PMI, closing costs, dealer fees, taxes at signing, utilities, and maintenance are still not fully modeled.