Tool 03
Affordability and stress test
What a lender will approve, tested the way they test it.
Maximum purchase price a lender would likely approve
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Next: see the monthly payment at…
Each opens the mortgage calculator at that price, with your down payment and rate carried across. The playbook's order: affordability sets the ceiling, then the payment, then the cash to close.
Limit 39% of gross income
Limit 44% of gross income
- Qualifying (stress test) rate
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- Mortgage at maximum, incl. insurance
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- Monthly payment at your actual rate
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- Monthly housing costs at your actual rate
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- What's limiting you
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My comfortable range
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Where housing stays under about 32% of income and all debts under 40%. A lender's maximum is a ceiling, not a target. Leaving room is what lets you sleep at night when life happens.
Good to know
GDS is your mortgage payment at the qualifying rate, property tax, heating and half of condo fees, divided by gross monthly income. TDS adds every other debt payment. Insured mortgages are capped at 39% and 44%; some lenders are stricter.
Your down payment also caps the price. Under $1.5 million you need 5% of the first $500,000 and 10% above it; at $1.5 million and up you need 20%.
Self-employed, commission or rental income is treated differently by each lender. Bring me your situation and I'll connect you with a broker who knows how to present it.
Estimates for planning only, not a mortgage approval, tax or legal advice. What you enter stays in your browser, or on your account if you're signed in.
Using this tool
How to get the most from it
This is the tool to start with: it shows the ceiling a lender will use, so everything else has a limit.
- Lenders qualify you at the higher of 5.25% or your rate plus two points: the stress test. This tool tests it the same way.
- Enter every monthly debt payment: car, student loan, credit card minimums, lines of credit.
- Then run it again with the real property tax and, for a condo, the monthly fees of the home you're considering.
- What you're approved for and what you're comfortable paying are two numbers. Choose the second.
The approach
With me, you don’t buy with confidence, you close with it.
I'm Nima. My work in commercial and investment real estate has taught me to look beyond the property itself, to the numbers, the risks and the details that matter. I bring that same approach to every residential transaction.