Debt-to-Income Ratio Calculator
Your numbers
The two ratios lenders actually compute — housing alone (front-end) and all debt payments (back-end) — against your gross monthly income.
Pre-tax — what lenders use, not your take-home
Mortgage PITI or rent. Renters: for a mortgage application, lenders swap rent for the proposed payment — estimate it with the PITI calculator.
Monthly PAYMENTS, not balances. For credit cards, the minimum payment. Include auto, student loans, personal loans, child support/alimony.
How we calculate this
Lenders compute two ratios from the same division. The front-end ratio is your housing payment alone over your gross monthly income — the 28% guideline. The back-end ratio adds every other monthly debt payment on top — the 36% guideline, and the number people usually mean by "DTI." Both use gross (pre-tax) income, which surprises people: the guidelines look generous precisely because they're measured against money you never see in your checking account.
Payments, not balances. A $40,000 student loan with a $320 payment hurts your DTI exactly as much as a $15,000 loan with a $320 payment. For credit cards, lenders count the minimum payment, not the balance and not what you actually pay. This is why DTI can be fixed faster than net worth: retiring one whole payment — even a small loan — moves the ratio more than paying half of everything.
What changed in 2021: the famous 43% line stopped being a federal cap. The CFPB's General QM rule replaced the hard 43% debt-to-income limit with a price-based test, so today 43% is a common lender reference point, not a law. The practical ceilings now come from the underwriting systems — Fannie Mae's Desktop Underwriter tops out at 50% — and from FHA/VA programs, which routinely stretch further with compensating factors like reserves or strong credit. Every threshold on this page is a guideline someone can out-negotiate, not a rule.
The $0-IDR trap: if your student loans are on an income-driven plan with a $0 payment, mortgage lenders may still impute 0.5–1% of the balance as a monthly payment for DTI purposes. A $60,000 balance can show up as $300–600/month of phantom debt. Enter what your lender will count, not what you currently pay.
What we don't ask: lenders also net in alimony you receive, co-signed loans (usually counted unless someone else has paid 12 months straight), and non-salary income averaging for the self-employed. If those apply, treat this as your starting point and expect the underwriter's number to differ a little.
Real scenarios
The classic squeeze: fine on housing, tight on total
A $7,500/month household with a $2,100 housing payment sits exactly at the 28.0% front-end guideline — housing itself is fine. But add a $450 auto loan, $320 of student loans, and $85 in card minimums and the back-end lands at 39.4%: workable, but past many lenders' comfort line. The tool spots the lever: paying off the student loans — the smallest payment that changes bands — brings it to 35.1%, back under 36%.
Comfortable and provably so
Income of $5,200 with a $1,437 housing payment, a $289 auto loan, and $63 of card minimums: 27.6% front-end, 34.4% back-end. Both under the guidelines. If this is you, DTI isn't your constraint — shop rates, not debt payoff.
Over 50%: pick the right debt, not the biggest number
A $4,800/month earner with $1,900 housing and $880 of debt payments is at 57.9% — past where most lenders decline. Intuition says attack the cards first, but killing the $210 card minimum only reaches 53.5%, still declined territory. The $520 auto payment is the one that crosses a line: 47.1%, where FHA/VA flexibility starts to exist. When the goal is qualification, the payoff order is about which payment crosses a boundary — not which balance annoys you most.