How much house can I afford on a $150k salary?

On a $150k salary — single, Texas, 10% down with PMI, a 6.5% 30-year mortgage — the projection reads: affordable at $200k–$400k; tight at $500k–$700k; the down payment can’t be funded at $800k–$1M. Each price below is its own pair of projections, buying at 32 or renting the equivalent home and investing the difference, run to 95.

Every price on a $150k salary

Monthly housing is principal and interest, property tax, insurance and PMI in the first year, in today’s dollars; the share is of take-home after federal tax and FICA. Retirement ages are buy / rent-and-invest: the earliest age from which the plan funds itself to 95. Across the funded rows, going from a $200k home to a $700k one moves the earliest funded retirement from 52 to 64.

The monthly cost at $400k

Living costs of $4,375/mo on top leave $2,387/mo to invest in year one; PMI falls away at age 39.

State income tax moves the answer

The same $400k house on the same $150k salary in California: take-home falls to $9,100/mo after state income tax, so the identical $2,952 stack is 32% of it (+2 points), the chip reads Affordable, and the earliest funded retirement is 60 buying / 62 renting, against 57 / 58 in Texas.

What the chips mean

Three outcomes, two of them the engine’s own. Can’t fund is the calculator’s affordability rule verbatim: the down payment is funded in order from the year’s surplus, then cash savings, then selling brokerage shares (with the capital-gains tax that triggers), and if more than $1,000 is still short the engine books it as cash debt rather than granting free equity — the same condition that raises the red “you can’t afford this home purchase” banner in the app. It also covers a plan that funds the purchase but has to borrow in a later working year to carry it. Affordable means the purchase is funded and the whole housing stack — principal and interest, property tax, insurance and PMI — is 35% of take-home pay or less. Tight means it is funded but takes more than 35%. That 35% line is the one number on this page that is a convention rather than an engine result; everything else is the projection.

The retirement age is the earliest age from which retiring funds every year to 95 with no shortfall and no borrowing — the same test the rest of this site uses. Home equity counts toward net worth but not toward that test, which only asks whether the accounts can deliver each year’s spending.

Assumptions: single filer in Texas, age 32, salary rising 3%/yr, non-housing living costs at 35% of salary ($52,500/yr), savings of $75,000 in a brokerage account at the start, every surplus dollar invested at 7% nominal, 3% inflation. The house: 10% down, 6.5% 30-year mortgage, 1.1% property tax, $130/mo insurance, 3% appreciation, PMI at 0.6% of the loan until the balance reaches 80% of value. The renter pays $2,000/mo (0.5% of the price), rising with inflation for life, and invests the down payment. No Social Security, no employer match, no children — each of those moves the answer, which is what the calculator is for.

Common questions

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