Debt-to-Income Ratio
The number lenders judge you by — see your DTI and where you land against their thresholds.
Lenders generally treat ≤36% as healthy and 43% as the usual ceiling to qualify for a mortgage. The lower your DTI, the better the rates you're offered — and the more breathing room you have.
How to use this calculator
- Enter your gross monthly incomePre-tax — the figure lenders actually use.
- Add your monthly debt paymentsHousing, loan payments, and credit card minimums.
- Read your DTI and ratingAim for 36% or below; 43% is the usual ceiling to qualify for a mortgage.
When you apply for a mortgage, an auto loan, or a refinance, the lender's first question is rarely your income alone — it is your debt-to-income ratio (DTI): the share of your gross monthly income already committed to debt payments. It is one of the biggest factors deciding whether you are approved and at what rate.
How DTI works
Add up your required monthly debt payments — rent or mortgage, auto and student loans, credit card minimums, and any other obligations — and divide by your gross (pre-tax) monthly income. If $2,160 of a $6,000 income goes to debt, your DTI is 36%. Lenders use this to gauge how much room you have to take on more.
The thresholds that matter
As a rule of thumb, lenders treat 36% or below as healthy, and 43% as the typical ceiling to qualify for a qualified mortgage. Below 36% you tend to get the best rates and the most options; above 43%, approvals get hard and pricing gets worse. Lowering your DTI — by paying down balances or raising income — directly widens what you can borrow and improves the terms.
DTI vs. credit score
DTI and your credit score measure different things. Your score reflects how reliably you have handled debt; your DTI reflects how much you are carrying right now relative to income. You can have an excellent score and still be denied for a high DTI, because the lender's concern is capacity, not just history.
A worked example
On $6,000 of gross monthly income with $1,600 housing, $450 in loans, and $150 in card minimums, your DTI is about 37% — just over the "healthy" line, with roughly $0 of room before 36%. Adjust the figures above to see how paying down a balance moves the ratio.