Debt-to-Income Ratio Calculator
The number a mortgage lender decides on, before you apply.
Tight but lendable
- Housing ratio (front-end)
- 28%
- Total monthly debt payments
- $3,030.00
- Income left after debts
- $4,470.00
- Room at the 36% guideline
- $-330.00
- Room at the 43% limit
- $+195.00
Both ratios sit inside the usual guidelines. Lenders also look at credit history, deposit size and how stable the income is.
Every tool runs entirely in your browser. Your files are never uploaded to a server.
Divide every monthly debt payment by gross monthly income. Under 36% is the usual guideline and 43% is where most lenders stop. Housing alone is generally expected to stay under 28%.
How to use Debt-to-Income Calculator
- Use gross income. Before tax, not take-home. Lenders work from gross, so a take-home figure understates your ratio badly.
- Count only debt payments. Loans, cards and housing. Groceries, utilities and subscriptions are not debts and are not counted.
- Read both ratios. The total figure is what qualifies you. The housing figure is the one that is hard to change afterwards.
About calculating a debt-to-income ratio
Debt-to-income is the number a mortgage decision actually turns on, and it is worth knowing yours before an application rather than after. It comes in two forms. The front-end or housing ratio is the proposed housing payment divided by gross monthly income, and the conventional expectation is that it stays under 28 percent. The back-end ratio adds every other monthly debt obligation — car finance, student loans, personal loans, credit card minimums, child support — and the traditional guideline is 36 percent, with 43 percent the level at which most lenders stop regardless of how strong the rest of the file looks. Two details cause most of the confusion. The first is that the calculation uses gross income, before tax and deductions, which is not the figure most people have in their head; using take-home pay inflates the ratio substantially and leads people to rule themselves out unnecessarily. The second is that only debt counts. Utilities, groceries, insurance, childcare and subscriptions are all real monthly costs and none of them appears in this ratio, which is why a lender can approve a payment that feels unaffordable — the ratio was never a measure of affordability, only of leverage. For credit cards, the minimum payment is what counts, not what you choose to pay, so a card carried at a low balance still contributes. That also points at the fastest way to improve the number: clearing one small balance outright removes its entire payment from the numerator, which shifts the ratio more than spreading the same money across several debts. The ratio is a threshold test rather than a score, so moving from 44 to 42 percent can change an outcome while moving from 30 to 28 changes nothing.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good debt-to-income ratio?
Is DTI calculated on gross or net income?
Which payments count as debt?
Do I use the minimum payment on a credit card?
How do I lower the ratio quickly?
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