Ask how much rent you can afford and you will get three different answers, because there are three common rules and they do not agree. This calculator runs all three side by side: the 30% of income guideline, the landlord 3x-rent screen, and a cap that adjusts for the debts you already carry. It shows you the range they produce and where they part ways, so you can decide with the full picture instead of one number.
The three rules below disagree on purpose, and that gap is the useful part. The low end is the safe budget; the high end is the ceiling a landlord might allow, not a target to hit.
HUD calls a household cost burdened above 30% of income on housing. The strictest rule, and the only sourced one.
A common landlord screening practice: gross income of at least three times the rent. A convention, not a statistic.
Your DTI cap applied to gross income, minus the debt payments you already carry. The only rule that knows what you owe.
Source: The 30% cost-burden threshold is HUD's definition of record, as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau.
These are rules of thumb, not a single answer, and they pull in different directions on purpose. The 30% rule is the strictest and the only one with an authoritative source behind it. The 3x-rent rule is looser and is really a landlord's screen, not a budgeting target. The debt-adjusted cap is the only one that accounts for what you already owe. Read them together, not one at a time.
Every rule here runs on gross income, before taxes and payroll deductions, because that is how landlords and lenders apply them. Your take-home pay is lower, sometimes much lower, so 30% of gross can be closer to 40% of what actually lands in your account. If a rent that passes on paper feels tight in real life, that gap is why. Budget against your take-home to see what you can really carry.
Thinking about buying instead? The Home Affordability Calculator answers the other question: the home price your income and debts support, folding in the down payment, rate, taxes, and insurance.
Math methodology last reviewed by Barron Hansen on