Debt-to-Income Calculator

How this result is built

Calculate front-end and back-end debt-to-income ratios from income, housing, and other monthly debts.

Debt-to-income is the snapshot a mortgage file starts with. The front-end ratio is housing divided by gross income. The back-end ratio adds car loans, student loans, card minimums, and other recurring debts.

What the opening example is for

A ratio is not a character reference. It is a capacity check. Two households with the same ratio can feel different if one has volatile income and the other does not.

The walkthrough below uses the numbers already sitting in Debt-to-Income Calculator. Press Calculate and the headline should match this page. Then put your own figures in. The math does not run until you press the button, and Clear hides the result.

What each field is doing

The “Gross monthly income” line on Debt-to-Income Calculator starts at $8,000.00. If the label is a rate, type the annual figure the contract uses. If it is money, type the amount that will actually move, not a rounded hope.

Debt-to-Income Calculator treats “Monthly housing payment” as its own entry, and the form opens with $2,100.00. Leave that figure only when it matches the statement, the quote, or the plan you are testing. Press Calculate after the edit so the chart and the schedule move with it.

Before you replace it, “Other monthly debt payments” reads $650.00 on Debt-to-Income Calculator. A round example is useful for learning the page. It is a poor substitute for the number on your own paperwork, so replace it and run the form again.

The opening result, line by line

Press Calculate on the opening form and Back-end debt-to-income is 34.38%. That is the number the rest of this section is talking about.

Front-end housing ratio is 26.25% when you run the opening figures on Debt-to-Income Calculator. That line is part of the same calculation as the headline. It is not a second balance you can spend on top of the result. Change one input and press Calculate if you want to see whether this line moves.

On this opening pass, monthly debt is $2,750.00. That line is part of the same calculation as the headline. It is not a second balance you can spend on top of the result. Change one input and press Calculate if you want to see whether this line moves.

Debt-to-Income Calculator reports that income is $8,000.00. That line is part of the same calculation as the headline. It is not a second balance you can spend on top of the result. Change one input and press Calculate if you want to see whether this line moves.

How those lines were produced

Many mortgage programs look for a back-end ratio around 36% to 43%, and some allow more.

The formula line on the page is DTI = Monthly debt ÷ Gross monthly income. It is there so you can see the relationship the buttons are using. A schedule, when the page draws one, is that same series written row by row.

A second pass changes only “Gross monthly income”, from $8,000.00 to $8,800.00. Back-end debt-to-income moves from 34.38% to 31.25%. Nothing else on the form was edited, so the gap between those two results is the effect of that one field on Debt-to-Income Calculator. If the gap is tiny, this page is not very sensitive to that entry. If the gap is large, get that entry from a document before you plan around the result.

What this page will not claim

Debt-to-Income Calculator does not know your credit score, the county’s tax bill, or what an appraiser will say. Type the price, the loan, and the escrow you were quoted. Compare the payment with the loan estimate, and treat a small rounding difference as normal.

Debt-to-Income Calculator stops at its own formula. When the next question is different, open House Affordability Calculator (A price that fits income and the debts you already have.); Mortgage Calculator (Principal, interest, tax, insurance, PMI, and HOA in one payment.); Debt Consolidation Calculator (A lower payment can still cost more interest.). Do not add those results to this one as if they were the same kind of dollar.

Check the result before you use it

Start on Debt-to-Income Calculator by reading the labels, not the headline. The opening labels are Gross monthly income ($8,000.00), Monthly housing payment ($2,100.00), Other monthly debt payments ($650.00). If a label is not the fact you have, the result cannot turn into that fact later. The illustration on the form lands on 34.38%. When you press Calculate and see that same figure, the button and this explanation are using one formula.

Change one field at a time. Write down the headline, edit a single line, and press Calculate again. A large jump means that line carries the result. A line that does not move is a line the formula ignores, which is a reason to confirm you opened the right page. Debt-to-Income Calculator is built for one job: Front-end and back-end ratios, side by side. The description on the page says the same thing in a sentence: Calculate front-end and back-end debt-to-income ratios from income, housing, and other monthly debts.

When the paperwork disagrees

Then hold the headline next to a source outside the site. That source might be a loan estimate, an account statement, a pay stub, or the public limit named in the methodology. A few cents of difference on a long schedule is ordinary rounding. A different rate, a fee you never typed, or a tax the form does not ask for is not rounding. Correct the input. Do not average the page with the paperwork.

When the outside source still disagrees, Debt-to-Income Calculator has reached the edge of what it will claim. It will not phone a lender, pull a county record, or apply a credit you left blank. Send the calculator name, every input, and the result you expected through the contact page if you think the formula itself is wrong. Until that is settled, read 34.38% as the output of the fields above and nothing else.

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