How much home can I afford?
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It comes down to your income and your debts, not a fixed number everybody should hit. Lenders compare your gross monthly income to what you already owe, then look at what's realistically left for a house payment. The "spend a third of your income on housing" rule you see online is a decent starting point, but it ignores your actual debt load, and that can swing the real number a lot in either direction. Someone with no car payment and no student loans can often afford meaningfully more house than someone with the same income carrying both. The only way to know your real number is a full pre-approval that looks at your actual income, debts, and credit, not an online calculator guessing at averages. Most people are surprised it's higher than they expected, because those calculators tend to be conservative.