Not "will the bank approve you." That's easy. This calculator answers the harder question: will buying this house cost you the life you actually want?
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There are two different questions hiding inside “how much house can I afford”, and almost every calculator online answers the easier one.
The easy question is how much a lender will approve. That is arithmetic: your income, your debts, current rates, and a pair of ratios. The hard question is how much you can spend without giving up the things you were buying a home in order to have — time, children, travel, the ability to stop working one day. A lender has no view on that, and no reason to.
The calculator above answers the second question. This section explains the numbers behind it, so you can check our working rather than trust it.
A mortgage payment is the part everyone plans for. In California the surprises are usually elsewhere:
Most affordability tools are built by companies that earn more when you borrow more. We do not take a commission on your purchase, so the calculator has no reason to flatter you. If the honest answer is that a house would cost you four years of retirement, it says so. That is the whole point of it. Why we built KindHome this way.
Most lenders will approve you for far more than is comfortable. On $120,000 a year with no other debt, a typical lender will stretch to roughly $500,000–$600,000. Whether that is affordable depends almost entirely on what else you want your money to do. The same income supports a much smaller mortgage if you are saving for children, travel, or an earlier retirement — which is the question this calculator asks and a lender never will.
It says housing costs should stay under 28% of gross monthly income, and all debt under 36%. It is a useful ceiling and a poor target. The rule was built for lender risk, not for your life: it uses income before tax, ignores childcare, and treats a household with no savings goals identically to one saving for retirement. Treat 28% as the point past which you should be uncomfortable, not the number to aim for.
Property tax is the big one. Proposition 13 caps the base rate at 1% of assessed value, but local assessments and bonds usually push the effective rate to roughly 1.1%–1.25% — and the assessment resets to your purchase price when you buy, so the previous owner's low bill is not the bill you will get. After that: homeowners insurance, which has risen sharply in wildfire-exposed areas; Mello-Roos special assessments in many newer developments; HOA dues; and closing costs of roughly 2%–5% of the purchase price.
Twenty percent avoids private mortgage insurance, but it is not a legal minimum. Conventional loans go to 3% down and FHA to 3.5% for buyers who qualify. The trade-off is real rather than theoretical: a smaller deposit means PMI, a larger balance, and more interest over the life of the loan. Putting down less to buy sooner can still be the right call — it should just be a decision you made, not one you discovered afterwards.
No. A pre-approval tells you what a lender is willing to risk, which is a different question with a different party's interests behind it. It is worth having — sellers expect it — but the number on it is a ceiling, not a recommendation.
KindHome is not a licensed brokerage, lender or tax adviser. Everything here is general information about how these costs work, not advice about your situation. Rates, assessments and insurance availability vary by address and change over time — confirm the specifics for any property before you commit to it.