This House Fits
Housing numbers without the sales pitch
What does house-poor mean?
House-poor means a lender could approve the payment and you would still have too little take-home left after housing, debts, and ordinary bills. The loan can clear DTI. The leftover cash cannot cover the rest of the month.
Approved is not the same as fits
A lender looks at pretax income, listed debts, and a ratio. If that ratio clears their rule, the loan can go forward. Groceries, gas, childcare, and a repair are outside that rule.
On This House Fits, that is the tight price: high enough that a lender-style cap might allow it, while cash left after the full housing payment, debts, and living costs is thin or negative.
What it looks like in numbers
Comfortable stays near 28% of pretax for housing and 36% for housing plus debts. Stretch climbs toward what many lenders will still file. Tight sits above that fence.
If cash left after PITI, debts, and living costs is only a few hundred dollars—or below zero—you can make the mortgage and still miss groceries, gas, savings, or a repair. That is house-poor. It can happen even when the comfortable price is not $0.
If the comfortable price is $0
That usually means existing debts already fill the 36% cap, or take-home is already gone after living costs. Stretching the loan does not create income. Paying down a debt or raising take-home changes the picture more than adding points of DTI.
A $0 comfortable price means the 28/36 guideline has no room left, not that buying is morally off-limits. Stretching DTI does not add take-home.
How to use this page
- Treat small or red cash left as the warning. The stretch price by itself is not the test.
- A higher DTI cap is not extra income. It is permission to spend more of the same take-home.
- If cash left only looks fine after you set living costs to $0, you have not counted food, utilities, or gas. Put those costs in. Then read cash left again.
Related: take-home vs lender · 28/36 rule · PITI vs cash left
Estimate only. Not a lender, pre-approval, or financial advice. Confirm numbers before you make an offer.