You need to make $203,517 a year to afford a 550k mortgage. We base the income you need on a 550k mortgage on a payment that is 24% of your monthly income. In your case, your monthly income should be about $16,960. The monthly payment on a 550k mortgage is $4,070.
The Income Needed To Qualify for A $500k Mortgage
A good rule of thumb is that the maximum cost of your house should be no more than 2.5 to 3 times your total annual income. This means that if you wanted to purchase a $500K home or qualify for a $500K mortgage, your minimum salary should fall between $165K and $200K.
Monthly payments on a $550,000 mortgage
At a 4% fixed interest rate, your monthly mortgage payment on a 30-year mortgage might total $2,625.78 a month, while a 15-year might cost $4,068.28 a month.
A 500k house might seem expensive, but it's not in today's market. You can afford a house of 500k by earning anything from $74,607 before tax. However, you must consider several factors such as the downpayment, loan terms and interest rates, debt obligations, and closing costs based on location.
Home Costs, Worth and Mortgage Are Substantial Indicators
In other words, if you're worth $500,000 and your home constitutes $450,000 of that, you're middle class.”
When attempting to determine how much mortgage you can afford, a general guideline is to multiply your income by at least 2.5 or 3 to get an idea of the maximum housing price you can afford. If you earn approximately $100,000, the maximum price you would be able to afford would be roughly $300,000.
How much do I need to make for a $900,000 house? A $900,000 home, with a 5% interest rate for 30 years and $45,000 (5%) down requires an annual income of $218,403.
On a $350,000, 30-year mortgage with a 3% APR, you can expect a monthly payment of $1,264.81, not including taxes and interest (these vary by location and property, so they can't be calculated without more detail).
For homes in the $800,000 range, which is in the medium-high range for most housing markets, DollarTimes's calculator recommends buyers bring in $119,371 before tax, assuming a 30-year loan with a 3.25% interest rate.
The usual rule of thumb is that you can afford a mortgage two to 2.5 times your annual income. That's a $120,000 to $150,000 mortgage at $60,000.
What income is required for a 400k mortgage? To afford a $400,000 house, borrowers need $55,600 in cash to put 10 percent down. With a 30-year mortgage, your monthly income should be at least $8200 and your monthly payments on existing debt should not exceed $981. (This is an estimated example.)
To purchase a $300K house, you may need to make between $50,000 and $74,500 a year. This is a rule of thumb, and the specific salary will vary depending on your credit score, debt-to-income ratio, the type of home loan, loan term, and mortgage rate.
According to Brown, you should spend between 28% to 36% of your take-home income on your housing payment. If you make $70,000 a year, your monthly take-home pay, including tax deductions, will be approximately $4,530.
Monthly payments on a $300,000 mortgage
At a 4% fixed interest rate, your monthly mortgage payment on a 30-year mortgage might total $1,432.25 a month, while a 15-year might cost $2,219.06 a month.
In this scenario, an extra principal payment of $100 per month can shorten your mortgage term by nearly 5 years, saving over $25,000 in interest payments. If you're able to make $200 in extra principal payments each month, you could shorten your mortgage term by eight years and save over $43,000 in interest.
You should aim to have everything paid off, from student loans to credit card debt, by age 45, O'Leary says. “The reason I say 45 is the turning point, or in your 40s, is because think about a career: Most careers start in early 20s and end in the mid-60s,” O'Leary says.
Just paying an extra $50 per month will shave 2 years and 7 months off the loan and will save you over $12,000 in the long run. If you can up your payments by $250, the savings increase to over $40,000 while the loan term gets cut down by almost a third. The savings can be substantial.
For example, if you're bringing in $175,000 a year, have relatively low monthly debt payments of $1,000 a month and have saved up $100,000 for a down payment, you can afford to spend $754,916.73 on a home.
Therefore, if you want to buy a $2 million house, you need to make at least $667,000 a year. You should also have enough for a 20% down payment, or $400,000, plus a $100,000 cash buffer in case you lose your job. In this low interest rate environment, you can stretch to buy a home up to 5X your annual gross income.
1. Multiply Your Annual Income by 2.5 or 3. This was the basic rule of thumb for many years. Simply take your gross income and multiply it by 2.5 or 3 to get the maximum value of the home you can afford.
If you make $100,000 per year, your hourly salary would be $51.28. This result is obtained by multiplying your base salary by the amount of hours, week, and months you work in a year, assuming you work 37.5 hours a week.
How much house can I afford on a 120k salary? Keeping the 28/36 rule in mind, a prospective homeowner with a $120,000 income may be able to afford a $1 million home on a 30-year fixed mortgage. That is to say, they could spend up to $33,600 per year on a mortgage.
Safe debt guidelines
So start by doing the math. If you make $50,000 a year, your total yearly housing costs should ideally be no more than $14,000, or $1,167 a month. If you make $120,000 a year, you can go up to $33,600 a year, or $2,800 a month—as long as your other debts don't push you beyond the 36 percent mark.
While buyers may still need to pay down debt, save up cash and qualify for a mortgage, the bottom line is that buying a home on a middle-class salary is still possible — in some places. Below, check out 15 cities where you can become a homeowner while earning $40,000 a year or less.