How Much Income Do I Need to Buy a House? The Affordability Worksheet Kit

If you are a first-time buyer, you have probably typed "how much house can I afford" into a search bar and gotten a vague answer built on a rule of thumb. Banks do not use rules of thumb. They use your pre-tax monthly income, a debt-to-income cap, and a full monthly payment that includes taxes, insurance, and mortgage insurance. If you do not run those numbers yourself, you find out you are short after you have already fallen for a house. This kit gives you the same step-by-step math I walk through on my Reels, as fill-in templates you can reuse for every listing. You start with the monthly payment: down payment, loan amount, and principal and interest. Then you add taxes, insurance, and PMI or MIP. Then you divide by the right DTI cap, 36% for the conventional examples and 40% for FHA, to see the monthly and yearly income you need. You can also work in reverse. Enter your hourly wage and your savings, and you get a maximum price. Each section has usage notes and a completed example using real numbers, such as a $300,000 house with 5% down, a $260,000 FHA purchase, and a $36-an-hour budget. The result is that you stop guessing. You can compare loan types side by side, see what an extra $10,000 down does to the income you need, and decide which houses are worth your time before you call a lender. I am Antonio Cucciniello, a real estate investor. I help beginners buy their first rental in 30 to 90 days, and this math is a key part of what I teach. These templates are that same process, written down so you can reuse it. The numbers are estimates. Rates, taxes, and insurance vary, and a lender makes the final decision.