Rent Affordability Calculator
How much rent you can afford under the landlord's 3x-income rule, the 30%-of-gross rule and a debt-aware limit — and the income a target apartment requires.
Rent Affordability Calculator: with the default inputs, rent you can afford is $1,875.
Before tax. Landlords screen on gross, not take-home.
Roommate or partner income, if they will be on the lease.
Car, student loans, credit-card minimums, child support. Not groceries or utilities.
The calculator tells you the income it needs and whether you clear it.
The common screen. Some landlords write it as 40× monthly rent in annual income, which is 3.33×.
HUD treats households paying more than 30% of income for housing as cost burdened.
The lowest of the three tests below — the one that will actually bind.
- Set by
- Set by the 30%-of-gross housing rule
- Limit from the landlord's income multiple
- $2,083
- Limit from the 30%-of-gross rule
- $1,875
- Limit once your other debts are counted
- $2,050
- Income needed for the rent you have in mind
- $80,000
- Would a landlord approve you at that rent?
- Not on income alone. $2,000 is $125 above the binding limit (the 30%-of-gross housing rule); you would need $80,000 a year, a co-signer, or a guarantor.
- That rent as a share of gross income
- 32%
Assumptions
- All income figures are gross, before tax — that is what landlords screen on.
- The 30% housing-share threshold follows HUD's cost-burden definition and 24 CFR 5.628, which sets a tenant's payment at 30% of monthly adjusted income.
- The landlord's multiple is applied to gross monthly income, matching the usual '3× the rent' screen. A '40× annual income' rule corresponds to a multiple of 3.33.
- Utilities you pay are treated as part of housing cost, so they reduce the rent allowed under the share and debt tests.
- Security deposits, broker fees, renters insurance, credit-score floors and guarantor requirements are not modelled.
| Gross annual income | Gross monthly | Rent at 3× | Rent at 30% of gross |
|---|---|---|---|
| $40,000 | $3,333 | $1,111 | $1,000 |
| $55,000 | $4,583 | $1,528 | $1,375 |
| $70,000 | $5,833 | $1,944 | $1,750 |
| $85,000 | $7,083 | $2,361 | $2,125 |
| $100,000 | $8,333 | $2,778 | $2,500 |
| $125,000 | $10,417 | $3,472 | $3,125 |
| $150,000 | $12,500 | $4,167 | $3,750 |
Ignores your existing debts — it is the landlord's screen, not your budget.
How this is worked out
The formula
Gross monthly income = (your income + co-applicant income) ÷ 12 Limit from the landlord's rule = gross monthly income ÷ income multiple Limit from the housing share = gross monthly income × share − utilities you pay Debt-aware limit = gross monthly income × maximum total debt share − existing debt payments − utilities Affordable rent = the smallest of the three Income needed for a target rent = the largest of the three tests, annualised
Open How it’s calculated above to see this worked through with your own numbers.
What you enter
- Your gross annual income
- Before tax. Landlords screen on gross, not take-home.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 75000
- Co-applicant or other income
- Roommate or partner income, if they will be on the lease.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 0
- Monthly debt payments
- Car, student loans, credit-card minimums, child support. Not groceries or utilities.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 450
- Rent you have in mind
- The calculator tells you the income it needs and whether you clear it.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 2000
- Landlord's income multiple
- The common screen. Some landlords write it as 40× monthly rent in annual income, which is 3.33×.from 1 to 10 · defaults to 3
- Share of gross income for housing
- HUD treats households paying more than 30% of income for housing as cost burdened.a percentage · from 1 to 100 · defaults to 30
- Utilities you pay on top of rent(under More options)
- Counts inside the 30% housing share, not against it.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 0
- Maximum total debt including rent(under More options)
- A debt-aware ceiling: rent plus every other payment as a share of gross income.a percentage · from 1 to 100 · defaults to 40
What you get back
- Rent you can affordmain answer
- The lowest of the three tests below — the one that will actually bind.
- Set by
- Limit from the landlord's income multiple
- Limit from the 30%-of-gross rule
- Limit once your other debts are counted
- Income needed for the rent you have in mind
- Would a landlord approve you at that rent?
- That rent as a share of gross income
What this assumes
- All income figures are gross, before tax — that is what landlords screen on.
- The 30% housing-share threshold follows HUD's cost-burden definition and 24 CFR 5.628, which sets a tenant's payment at 30% of monthly adjusted income.
- The landlord's multiple is applied to gross monthly income, matching the usual '3× the rent' screen. A '40× annual income' rule corresponds to a multiple of 3.33.
- Utilities you pay are treated as part of housing cost, so they reduce the rent allowed under the share and debt tests.
- Security deposits, broker fees, renters insurance, credit-score floors and guarantor requirements are not modelled.
About this calculator
Two different questions hide inside "how much rent can I afford". One is what a landlord will approve — a screening rule, usually gross monthly income of at least three times the rent, sometimes written as annual income of 40 times the monthly rent. The other is what you can actually live on once your car payment and student loan are paid. Those two numbers are rarely the same, and this calculator reports both rather than blending them into one comforting figure.
The three tests
The landlord's multiple. Most screening is arithmetic, not judgement: gross monthly income divided by the multiple. At 3× and $75,000 a year, that is $2,083. Note that "40× the rent" and "3× the rent" are not the same rule — 40× annual income works out to 3.33× monthly, which is meaningfully stricter.
The 30% share. HUD's own programmes set a tenant's rent contribution at 30% of monthly adjusted income (24 CFR 5.628), and the government's cost-burden statistics use the same 30% line. It is a policy threshold rather than a law of budgeting, but it is why "30% of income" is the number everyone quotes.
Your existing debts. Neither of the first two tests knows you owe $450 a month on a car. The debt-aware ceiling caps rent plus every other payment at a share of gross income, which is how a mortgage underwriter would look at you — and it is frequently the limit that actually binds.
How to use it
Enter your gross income before tax, any co-applicant income that will be on the lease, and your monthly debt payments. Put the rent you are considering into Rent you have in mind and the calculator tells you both the income that rent requires and whether you clear it today. If you pay utilities on top of rent, add them under More options — they belong inside the 30%, not on top of it.
Reading the results
- Rent you can afford is the smallest of the three limits, and Set by names which one binds. If it is your debts, paying off the car does more for your housing options than a raise of the same size.
- Income needed is the largest requirement across the three tests, because a landlord applies theirs and your budget applies the others.
- That rent as a share of gross income is the number to sanity-check. Above 30% is cost burdened; above 50% is severely cost burdened, and one interrupted paycheque becomes an emergency.
Where this breaks down
Screening varies. Big-city landlords may want 40× rent in annual income, a credit score floor, and a guarantor earning 80–100× the monthly rent; small landlords may want none of it and take a conversation instead. Nothing here models security deposits, broker fees (a month or more in some markets), renters insurance, or the moving costs that make the first month cost double. And the calculator works in gross income because landlords do — your take-home after tax, 401(k) and health insurance is often 25–30% lower, which is why an approved rent can still be an unaffordable one.
Frequently asked questions
▸What does the 3x rent rule mean?
Your gross monthly income must be at least three times the monthly rent — $6,000 a month of income for $2,000 rent. Some landlords write the same idea as '40 times the monthly rent in annual income', which is slightly stricter at 3.33× monthly.
▸Is the 30% rule the same as the 3x rule?
Almost, but not quite. Rent at 30% of gross income is the same as 3.33× income, so a landlord's 3× screen is marginally more generous than the 30% guideline. Where they differ, the calculator uses whichever binds first.
▸What if my income doesn't meet the landlord's rule?
Common routes are a guarantor or co-signer (often required to earn 80–100× the monthly rent), a larger security deposit or several months of rent paid up front, adding a roommate to the lease, or documented savings. Ask what the landlord will accept before applying and paying a fee.
▸Should I use gross or net income?
Landlords screen on gross. Budget on net. That gap is why a rent that gets approved can still be unaffordable — after tax and payroll deductions your take-home is typically 25–30% below gross.
▸What counts as cost burdened?
HUD treats a household paying more than 30% of its income for housing as cost burdened, and more than 50% as severely cost burdened. The 30% figure comes from the same statute that sets rent at 30% of adjusted income in HUD's own rental assistance programmes.
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