How it works

For cash, we add savings, net home-sale proceeds and other funds, then subtract your emergency reserve and moving reserve. Your limit is the smaller of that remaining cash and the maximum you are willing to use. A negative result becomes zero.

For monthly spending, we add take-home income and other income, then subtract groceries, transportation, health, childcare, lifestyle and other regular expenses; ongoing debt payments; and your savings goal and cushion; and utilities and other home-cost reserves. The amount left is your monthly mortgage budget, with a minimum of zero.

Home utilities are reserved separately from everyday expenses in this worksheet. Avoid entering the same expense in two places. Gross income is used only for the separate mortgage qualification estimate.

You can override either final limit. Personal preferences take precedence over the worksheet.

The loan amount is the purchase price minus the down payment. For a fixed-rate loan, we use the standard amortization formula:

• L is the loan amount.
• r is the monthly interest rate: annual interest rate (%) ÷ 1,200. This input is the loan interest rate, not an APR including fees.
• n is the number of monthly payments: loan term in years × 12.

At a 0% interest rate, payment is simply the loan amount divided by the number of payments. This estimates a fixed-rate payment; it does not forecast adjustable rates, refinancing or future cost increases.

Prepaid taxes or insurance equal the annual estimate ÷ 12 × the number of prepaid months. They are counted as upfront cash, while the monthly view still shows the ongoing cost of owning the home.

PMI is included below 20% down and omitted at 20% or more. This is a simple estimate; actual premiums and loan-program requirements differ. We do not model when PMI may later be cancelled.

Amounts are rounded for display. Budget comparisons use the underlying numbers, so a displayed percentage rounded to 100% may still be just over the limit.

These costs are not automatically localized to your home. Property taxes, insurance and maintenance can vary substantially. Setting an optional cost to zero removes it from the estimate.

Envelope shows combined budget use. Monthly cost shows a monthly dollar amount and compares it with the monthly limit. Upfront cash shows initial dollars and compares them with the cash limit.

The monthly view can show mortgage principal and interest only. This changes that view’s numbers and colors; the combined envelope and best fit use principal, interest, taxes, and insurance.

The grid chooses price columns and down-payment rows around the boundary where homes stop fitting both budgets. Changing the increments zooms this view in or out. The calculation checks the change in PMI at 20% down, rather than assuming every increase in down payment helps.

The usual view has six price columns and up to six down-payment rows. If nothing fits, it can still show scenarios for comparison. Chart increments change which scenarios you see, not your limits or the underlying cost formulas.

For a zero budget, a zero cost uses 0%; any positive cost exceeds the limit.

Use is expressed as a decimal: 80% is 0.80. The lowest score wins; ties favor the lower purchase price. If no displayed scenario fits both limits, there is no eligible best fit.

The housing search’s reference range is calculated separately from grid zoom, using 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25% and 30% down. Its comfortable ceiling uses 90% of both budgets, its within-limits ceiling uses 100%, and its stretch ceiling uses 110%.

Your search preference then guides the target: a cushion aims around 75–85% of both budgets, near-limit aims around 90–100%, and flexible explores the full range within your limits. A selected scenario can supply the reference down payment. Individual listings are still evaluated with their own price and costs.

We use Fannie Mae’s conventional-loan DTI benchmarks: up to 36% is within the manual-underwriting baseline; over 36% through 45% needs qualifying credit and reserves; over 45% through 50% needs automated underwriting approval; above 50% exceeds that automated-underwriting benchmark.

This checks a ratio, not loan eligibility. Credit history, verified income, employment, reserves, property appraisal, loan limits and lender requirements also matter. Other loan programs differ. Without the necessary income and debt inputs, the result is “Not evaluated.” An all-cash purchase does not need a mortgage check.

Each active criterion has a 1–10 importance rating. The primary move goal receives twice its selected weight. Supported matches score 100, partial matches 55, and misses 0. The fit score is the weighted average over criteria with supporting evidence. Unknown facts do not earn credit and are counted separately in evidence coverage. Scores are hidden below 75% coverage or when the primary goal is unconfirmed. This is a comparison of researched options, not a probability or objective appraisal.

A missed or unconfirmed must-have produces a Loose fit. A score below 55, evidence coverage below 55%, or an unconfirmed primary goal is also Loose fit. Best fit requires a score of at least 85 with every relevant criterion met; the other surviving homes are Decent fit. Homes without must-have gaps rank first, then by fit score, closeness to the chosen budget preference, and lower price. The top three are summarized first and detailed once in their actual fit categories below.

Bedrooms, bathrooms and financial totals are checked by code. Without a selected matrix scenario, the report compares 5%–30% down in five-point steps and chooses the smallest use of the tighter budget. Extra moving cash is added once; sale proceeds already included in step 1 are never added again. Sourced annual property taxes and monthly HOA replace the calculator estimates when you select that option; other costs retain your calculator settings. Reported taxes can change after purchase.

Your supplied current-home details and a small set of public sources support comparisons of gains and losses. School assignments, commute times and condition are not assumed from a town name. Source-based judgment and uncertainty are identified. Current report research uses text, not a visual property inspection. Each option includes costs, pros, cons, current-home comparisons and source links.

Research results and completed comparisons are saved between stages. Email delivery can continue after you leave the page and retries reuse the completed report. A failed search is not represented as a completed report. A paid report uses a $4 card authorization before generation and captures it only after at least three usable homes are generated and the email provider accepts the completed report. Failed reports release the authorization. Bitcoin payments use a separate prepaid Lightning checkout through Strike. Because Bitcoin cannot use a card-style authorization hold, that payment is final even if the report later fails. Accounts and recurring searches remain future features.

Higher scores mean conditions are more favorable to buyers relative to the historical baseline.

Each input is first converted to 0–10 using the method below. Buyer Leverage is the sum of those scores multiplied by their weights.

Sell Strength favors low inventory, short time on market and fewer price cuts, plus stronger sale-to-list ratios, appreciation and demand. Weights are 30%, 20%, 20%, 15%, 10% and 5%, respectively. Appreciation uses the metro repeat-sales price index’s year-over-year change.

Target Buy Leverage uses the Buyer Leverage method for your target counties, with equal weights across the counties held consistent throughout the chart.

Relative Price Advantage measures how your selling market’s purchasing power has changed against the target markets, using comparable repeat-sales indices from a January 2021 base.

For example, 30% growth in the selling market and 20% in the target market gives 1.30 ÷ 1.20 − 1 = 8.33% more relative purchasing power. For multiple targets, we average those relative movements, then normalize the series to 0–10.

Move Advantage needs a resolved selling market, target markets and complete comparable data. It is omitted when all targets share the selling market’s metro price index: that data cannot measure price changes between towns in the same metro. Missing components are not guessed or replaced with Buyer Leverage.

For each metric and market, the baseline uses available January 2021–December 2025 observations, with at least 20 valid observations. Its 10th, 50th and 90th percentiles become fixed low, typical and high anchors, mapped to scores of 0, 5 and 10.

Scores are capped between 0 and 10. For metrics where lower is better, the score becomes 10 minus that value. A missing or constant series has no score. We do not redistribute a missing component’s weight to other components.

A score of 5 means historically typical, not proof of a balanced market. Broadly, 0–2 is extremely unfavorable, 2–4 unfavorable, 6–8 favorable and 8–10 extremely favorable to the buyer or move being measured. A 7.5 is not a 75% chance of success.

The baseline remains fixed within the method version so quarters remain comparable. Historical scores use later-known baseline data; they do not recreate what someone could have known at the time.

Housing chart points are the average of monthly normalized scores in each quarter. A completed quarter needs all three months. The latest partial quarter uses consecutive available months from its start and is labeled partial. Requested target counties must resolve and have the required data; missing coverage is not silently dropped.

The mortgage chart uses the arithmetic average of available weekly 30-year PMMS observations in each quarter. A partial quarter is labeled with its coverage. This quarterly average can differ from the latest weekly rate used in the calculator.

Smooth curves connect the actual quarterly points using shape-preserving cubic interpolation. This avoids overshooting adjacent values; the curve between points is a visual aid, not additional observations. Missing quarters remain gaps and the lines are not extended into the future.

Website charts and email images use the same values and line method. Source dates, partial-period labels and the methodology version help you interpret which observations the chart represents.