The most you can borrow is usually capped at four-and-a-half times your annual income.
Most mortgage lenders don't offer 40-year mortgage refinances, but if you find one who does, keep in mind: You'd be trading lower monthly payments for a much longer loan term and much more in interest.
Baseline conventional loan limits (also known as conforming loan limits) for 2024 increased roughly 5.21% compared with 2024, rising $39,950 to $806,500 for one-unit properties in most areas. Limits in high-cost counties are set on a county-by-county basis. The upper limit in high-cost counties is $1,209,750.
A fixed-rate mortgage with a 30-year term may be a good option for you if you: Want to keep your monthly payment low without giving up the stability of a fixed rate. Want to get approval for a larger loan. Plan to stay in your home for the long-term.
You can get a mortgage for as long as 50 years in the US, but these aren't “qualified” mortgages. Only some lenders are interested in non-qualified mortgages, so your choices would be limited. But this isn't even the first or second most significant disadvantage of 50-year mortgages.
Your age can affect your eligibility for a 35-year mortgage. For instance, if you are 30 years old and secure a 35-year mortgage, you will complete the payments at age 65. This will generally be acceptable to lenders. But if you are 40 and considering taking out a 35 year mortgage, you'll be 75 at the end of the term.
A $100,000 mortgage comes with a monthly payment around $840. Your lender will look for income in the $28,000 range to make that monthly payment, assuming you don't have debt already from a car payment or student loan, for example.
A loan is considered jumbo if the amount of the mortgage exceeds loan-servicing limits set by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — currently $806,500 for a single-family home in all states (except Hawaii and Alaska and a few federally designated high-cost markets, where the limit is $1,209,750).
The monthly income rule
"You want to make sure that your monthly mortgage is no more than 28% of your gross monthly income," says Reyes. So if you bring home $5,000 per month (before taxes), your monthly mortgage payment should be no more than $1,400.
Age doesn't matter. Counterintuitive as it may sound, your loan application for a mortgage to be repaid over 30 years looks the same to lenders whether you are 90 years old or 40.
Qualified mortgages, which can be bought by major mortgage investors, are limited by legal regulation to have terms no longer than 30 years. Because 40-year loans are not subject to these rules, they may have some unfavorable terms.
A loan is considered jumbo if it exceeds the maximum loan limits for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac conforming loans—currently $766,550 for single-family homes in most parts of the U.S. but up to $1,149,825 in certain more expensive areas.
If your annual income is $120,000, you should be able to afford a house between $373,000 and $633,000. Why the sizeable difference? Because lenders look at more than just your income when approving you for a mortgage.
30 Year Mortgage Rate in the United States averaged 7.72 percent from 1971 until 2025, reaching an all time high of 18.63 percent in October of 1981 and a record low of 2.65 percent in January of 2021. This page includes a chart with historical data for the United States 30 Year Mortgage Rate.
Lenders will typically use an income multiple of 4-4.5 times income – if you're a solo applicant it's just your income but if you're in a couple you add both of your incomes together and times it by four to get an idea of how much you could borrow.
Typically, jumbo loan rates are higher than conventional loan rates. Since jumbo loans carry higher loan amounts and pose higher risks to lenders, they often come with higher interest rates. Additionally, jumbo loans may require larger down payments and stricter qualification criteria compared to conventional loans.
Bigger down payment
While it's possible to find jumbo loan lenders that will accept a 10% down payment, most will require you to put down at least 20%. That's a lot more than you'll need for a conforming loan, which usually only requires a down payment between 3% to 5% of the home's purchase price.
A bridge loan allows the buyer to take equity out of the current home and use it as a down payment on the new residence, with the expectation that the current home will close within a short time frame and the bridge loan will be repaid.
While there's no one set income level that will automatically qualify you for a $700,000 mortgage, using the rule of thumb that your housing payment should be no more than a third of your gross monthly income, you'll likely need somewhere between $180,000 and $200,000 per year to qualify, depending on other factors ...
It is possible to get a $100,000 personal loan, but it's challenging. Lenders don't typically offer loans as large as $100,000, with most banks and credit unions offering a maximum of $50,000. To qualify for a $100,000 personal loan, you'll need a credit score of 720 or above and a high income.
On a salary of $36,000 per year, you can afford a house priced around $100,000-$110,000 with a monthly payment of just over $1,000. This assumes you have no other debts you're paying off, but also that you haven't been able to save much for a down payment.
Thanks to the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), a lender can't discriminate against an applicant due to age, says the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB). You could be 99 years old and get a 30-year mortgage as long as you qualify.
Yes. You don't need your mortgage to be fully paid off in order to sell your house. The important thing to remember is your home equity, which is the difference between your home's current market value and what you still owe on the mortgage.