How Much House Can I Afford on an $80k Salary?
Eighty thousand a year is a good salary — comfortably above the US median household income — and it will get you a house in most of the country. But the price a lender approves and the price your monthly budget survives are two different numbers, about $77,000 apart at today’s rates. This guide shows both, and how we got them.
Key takeaways
- The 28/36 rule gives an $80k salary a housing budget of $1,867 a month — all-in, not just the mortgage.
- Spend it on principal and interest only and you reach a $341,000 home; budget the full PITI and the honest figure is about $264,000.
- Every $650 a month of other debt cuts your affordable price by roughly $18,500.
- At last year’s 6.34% average rate the same salary stretched to $287,000 taxes-included — rate moves matter as much as pay rises.
The 30-second answer
Earn $80,000 a year, owe nothing much else, put 20% down, and a lender working to the standard ratios will approve you for a home around $341,000 at today’s average rate. Shop at that price, though, and the full monthly payment — mortgage, property tax and insurance together — eats about 36% of your gross pay, before food, fuel or a single repair. Hold the whole payment to the same 28% the industry uses, and your realistic ceiling is $264,000. Both numbers are correct. Only one of them lets you sleep. The rest of this guide is the working-out, so you can rerun it on your own debts and your own state.
Step one: the 28/36 rule on $80,000
Underwriters judge affordability with two ratios. Your total housing payment should stay under 28% of gross monthly income, and all your minimum debt payments together under 36%. On $80,000 — $6,667 a month before tax — those caps are $1,867 and $2,400. Whichever leaves less room governs. Debt-free, the 28% housing cap is your limit. Carrying $650 a month in car and student-loan payments, the debt ratio leaves you $2,400 − $650 = $1,750 for housing, and that lower figure takes over. Nothing about these ratios cares what houses cost in your town; they are purely about how much of your pay a payment may claim.
Step two: what $1,867 buys at 7.28%
Freddie Mac’s weekly survey put the average 30-year fixed rate at 7.28% on 1 October 2026 — nearly a full point above the 6.34% of a year earlier. At 7.28%, each $1,867 of monthly principal and interest supports a loan of about $272,800, which with 20% down means a $341,000 home. That is the pre-approval number, and it is arithmetically sound — it just quietly assumes your property taxes and insurance are free. They are not. Keep the same $1,867 ceiling but spend it on the full PITI payment — principal, interest, taxes at roughly 1% of value and insurance at about $200 a month — and the maths lands at $264,000, with $52,800 down and a $211,400 loan. The $77,000 gap between the two answers is the single most common budgeting error in home buying.
Step three: debts, down payment and credit — the three levers
Debts. As shown above, $650 a month of existing payments drops your ceiling from $264,000 to about $245,800. Paying off a car loan before you apply is often worth more than an equivalent pay rise, because it frees the full monthly amount rather than a taxed fraction of it. Down payment. Drop to 10% down on the same $264,000 home and the payment jumps to about $2,145 a month — a bigger loan at $1,626, plus roughly $99 of private mortgage insurance, plus the same taxes and insurance — blowing the 28% cap entirely. Less down means a cheaper house, not the same house sooner. Credit score. The 7.28% average assumes strong credit; at 6.34% — where the average sat a year ago, and where a top-tier score can still land you — the taxes-included ceiling rises to about $287,000. A few months of score repair can be worth $20,000-plus of house.
What $264,000 buys in 2026 America
Context helps. The National Association of Realtors put the national median existing single-family price at $434,900 in the second quarter of 2026 — so on one $80k income you are shopping below the median almost everywhere, and that is normal, not failure. The regional medians tell the real story: $340,800 in the Midwest and $380,000 in the South put a starter home within reach with modest compromises, while the West’s $637,900 median puts the typical house beyond a single $80k salary at any plausible down payment. Where you buy matters more than how hard you save. And one mercy: at roughly $5,100 a month take-home after federal tax and FICA (run your state through the salary calculator), a $1,867 housing payment still leaves over $3,200 for everything else — tight but workable, which is exactly what the 28% rule was designed to guarantee.
Run your own salary
Add your debts, down payment and state, and get the ceiling you can actually live with — not the pre-approval headline.
Open the home affordability calculatorSources & further reading
Every external figure in this guide comes from one of these. The worked examples are our own arithmetic, shown in full above.
- Freddie Mac — Primary Mortgage Market SurveyThe weekly US rate survey behind the 7.28% figure, and last year’s 6.34% (1 October 2026).
- National Association of Realtors — Q2 2026 metro price reportThe $434,900 national median and the regional medians quoted above.
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — What costs come with taking out a mortgage?The fees and prepaids that sit on top of your down payment.
Frequently asked questions
Can I afford a $350,000 house on an $80k salary?
On principal and interest alone, just about — at 7.28% with 20% down, a $350,000 home costs about $1,913 a month, slightly above the $1,867 that 28% of an $80k salary allows. Add taxes and insurance and the same home lands near $2,415 a month, or 36% of your gross pay. That is house-poor territory for most households; $264,000 is the comfortable ceiling.
How much do I need to earn for a $300,000 house?
Work backwards from the payment. A $300,000 home with 20% down at 7.28% carries PITI of roughly $2,092 a month. Holding that to 28% of gross pay means a salary of about $89,700. With 10% down and PMI the payment rises, and so does the salary you need — closer to $98,000.
Does an $80k salary count both partners’ income?
Lenders count total household gross income from all borrowers on the loan, so two partners earning $80k combined are assessed exactly like one person earning $80k. The catch is debts: both partners’ car loans, cards and student loans also count against the 36% debt ratio.
Is $80,000 enough to buy in an expensive city?
In the priciest metros, honestly, not for a typical house — NAR put the West’s median single-family price at $637,900 in mid-2026, which needs roughly double this salary at today’s rates. The realistic routes are a condo or co-op well below the median, a partner’s second income, a longer savings runway, or a cheaper metro. The maths, not the effort, is the constraint.
Should I wait for rates to fall before buying on $80k?
Only if your horizon is short. A one-point rate drop would lift your affordable price by roughly $23,000, but nobody can schedule it, and prices often firm up when rates ease. If you plan to stay five-plus years and the payment fits at today’s rate, buying now and refinancing later usually beats renting while you wait for a forecast to come true.