Maximum FHA base loan
$241,227
Enter your income, what you already owe and your down payment. This calculator returns the most house an FHA loan can buy under your debt-to-income cap — counting the mortgage insurance FHA makes mandatory, both the 1.75% upfront premium financed into the loan and the annual premium taken out of the monthly payment, which the built-in search affordability tool leaves out entirely.
Because the down payment is a percentage of the purchase price, the loan-to-value is fixed by your down payment and does not change as the price changes — which is why this page has an exact answer rather than an estimate.
| DTI cap | Monthly housing budget | Left for FHA payment | Maximum base loan | Maximum price | Cost of insurance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28% | $1,740.00 | $1,170.00 | $155,931 | $161,587 | $13,524 |
| 36% | $2,380.00 | $1,810.00 | $241,227 | $249,976 | $20,922 |
| 43% | $2,940.00 | $2,370.00 | $315,861 | $327,317 | $27,395 |
| 50% | $3,500.00 | $2,930.00 | $390,495 | $404,658 | $33,869 |
The calculation runs backwards from your income. The debt-to-income cap sets a maximum total monthly debt payment; existing debts come off, and what remains is the monthly housing budget. Your own property tax, homeowners insurance and HOA are subtracted next. The difference from a conventional affordability figure is what the remainder has to cover: not just principal and interest, but the whole FHA payment — principal and interest on a loan that includes the financed 1.75% upfront premium, plus the annual mortgage insurance premium. On the defaults a $8,000 income with $500 of existing debt leaves a $2,380 budget at a 36% cap; subtracting $450 of tax and $120 of insurance leaves $1,810, and the most FHA stretches to is a $249,976 purchase price.
1.75% upfront premium — financed into the loan, so principal and interest are measured on a larger balanceannual premium — HUD's published rate for the loan-to-value, charged monthly and taken out of the budgetloan-to-value — set entirely by the down payment percentage, which is 96.5% at FHA's minimum 3.5% downThe affordability tool built into the search results treats the entire monthly housing budget as principal and interest. It has no field for the mortgage insurance FHA requires, so for an FHA buyer it overstates the price the budget can carry by the amount that insurance takes. On the defaults the FHA ceiling is $249,976, while ignoring the insurance but keeping your tax, insurance and HOA reserved the same budget reaches $270,899 — a gap of $20,922.
That gap is structural, not optional. Every FHA loan carries the 1.75% upfront premium, and because it is financed rather than paid at closing it increases the balance the principal-and-interest payment is computed on. The annual premium then takes a further slice of the monthly budget. A buyer who prices a loan with the built-in tool arrives at a maximum price the insurance will not actually let them carry.
This page returns the figure with both premiums counted, and shows the upfront premium separately so the size of the payment is explainable rather than surprising.
The debt-to-income cap is the lender's policy choice, not yours, and it moves the ceiling more than almost anything you control. The table below prices the default household — $8,000 income, $500 of existing debt, FHA's 3.5% down, 7.40% over 30 years, with $450 of property tax and $120 of insurance subtracted before the FHA payment is solved.
| DTI cap | Housing budget | Left for FHA payment | Maximum base loan | Maximum price | Cost of insurance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28% | $1,740.00 | $1,170.00 | $155,931 | $161,587 | $13,524 |
| 36% | $2,380.00 | $1,810.00 | $241,227 | $249,976 | $20,922 |
| 43% | $2,940.00 | $2,370.00 | $315,861 | $327,317 | $27,395 |
| 50% | $3,500.00 | $2,930.00 | $390,495 | $404,658 | $33,869 |
Gross monthly income $8,000, existing debt $500, FHA's 3.5% down, 7.40% over 30 years, $450 tax + $120 insurance subtracted before the FHA payment is solved
Two things move together in that table. The ceiling rises with the cap, from $161,587 to $404,658, but so does the cost of FHA's insurance, from $13,524 to $33,869 — because the premiums scale with the loan. On unchanged income and cash, the ratio the lender accepts is still the single largest lever on what you can buy.
FHA's annual premium rate steps down at a loan-to-value of 90%. At FHA's minimum 3.5% down the loan-to-value is 96.5% and the rate is 0.55%; at 10% down the loan-to-value is exactly 90%, the rate falls to 0.50%, and the premium also stops after 11 years instead of running the full term. That is why putting more down helps twice over — it lowers the balance the premiums are charged on and drops the rate itself.
The default household illustrates it: moving from 3.5% to 10% down lifts the FHA ceiling from $249,976 to $269,527 on the same income, before any cash constraint is considered. The premium rate that does it is shown beside the result as the annual MIP rate.
Everything on this page reproduces. For the default household the 36% housing budget is $8,000 × 0.36 − $500 = $2,380. Subtract the $450 tax and $120 insurance you entered and $1,810 is left for the whole FHA payment. At 3.5% down the loan-to-value is 96.5%, so the annual premium is 0.55% and the upfront premium is 1.75% financed.
Change any input and the figure recomputes; if your own arithmetic differs by more than a few dollars, one of the two implementations is wrong and the corrections page explains how to report it.
No. It treats the whole monthly housing budget as principal and interest and has no field for FHA's upfront or annual mortgage insurance. For an FHA loan that overstates the price you can carry; on this page's defaults the difference is $20,922.
Two premiums act together. The 1.75% upfront premium is financed into the loan, so principal and interest are paid on a larger balance, and the annual premium is taken out of the same monthly budget. Both reduce the loan the budget supports, which is why ignoring them flatters the number by thousands of dollars.
Usually not. It is financed into the loan, so the payment is computed on the larger balance. On the default base loan of $241,227 it adds $4,221 and the payment amortizes on $245,449.
It changes the loan-to-value, and the annual premium rate is set by the loan-to-value. At FHA's minimum 3.5% down the loan-to-value is 96.5% and the rate is 0.55%; at 10% down the loan-to-value is 90%, the rate falls to 0.50%, and the premium ends after 11 years. More down therefore lowers both the balance charged and the rate.
The default is the published 30-year fixed national average; replace it with the rate you are actually offered. FHA rates are set by each lender, not by a single government series.
How Much House Can I Afford with an FHA Loan? (Mandatory Mortgage Insurance Included) lists each external figure it uses once, with the publisher that issues it and the date it was retrieved. The calculator takes these as its defaults, so any of them can be replaced with a number of your own; a figure that is not in the list is one this page did not take from anywhere.
| Figure | Value | Published by | Retrieved |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30-year fixed mortgage national average | 7.40% | Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) | 2026-10-08 |
Values are the ones this page is built with, not a live feed. Where a figure is revised on a schedule, the retrieval date above is when it was read, and the next scheduled refresh is shown at the top of the page.
Related calculatorsFHA monthly payment (with MIP) · How much house can I afford (PITI) · How much house can I afford (principal & interest) · FHA vs conventional · FHA loan costs · Mortgage payment calculator · Down payment calculator · True monthly payment (PITI + HOA)
Cluster us/mortgage · Unit us-mortgage-fha-affordability · Engine amortizing-loan / fha-afford · Method: The housing budget is gross monthly income times the debt-to-income cap minus existing debt; the buyer's own property tax, homeowners insurance and HOA are subtracted first. What remains must cover the entire FHA payment: principal and interest on the loan that includes the financed 1.75% upfront premium, plus the annual premium set by HUD's published table. Because the down payment is a percentage of the price, the loan-to-value is fixed by that percentage and does not move as the price changes — which turns the solve into a closed form rather than a search. FHA's premium rates and the 30-year term are the published HUD figures, not estimates.