How much house can I afford on $300k income?

The practical answer

A $300,000 household income can support a meaningful home purchase, but the right price range depends heavily on taxes, monthly debt, down payment capacity, mortgage rate, property taxes, HOA or condo fees, and how much liquid wealth you want to preserve after closing.

A simple lender calculator may focus mainly on debt-to-income ratio. That can be useful for estimating approval capacity, but it can also overstate what is comfortable if your living expenses are high or if buying the home would drain most of your investable assets.

A more thoughtful approach is to compare three versions of affordability: a conservative scenario that protects your full future liquid wealth goal, a balanced scenario that allows some tradeoff, and an aggressive scenario that stretches further for the home while preserving less future wealth.

• A buyer with $300k income and little debt may qualify for a larger mortgage than they should actually take.
• Property taxes, HOA fees, and local income taxes can materially reduce the sustainable monthly payment.
• Down payment capacity matters as much as income, especially when trying to keep a cash cushion after closing.
• The calculator can model whether a larger home purchase still leaves enough investable assets to pursue a future wealth goal.

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