How much can a prospective buyer afford to pay for a home? The NAHB spreadsheets available on this page will calculate the answer.
Finding the income needed to buy a home of a given price is relatively easy with standard spreadsheet functions. However, many spreadsheet programs lack a function for the reverse calculation, forcing users who want to go from buyer’s income to maximum house price into a cumbersome process of trial and error.
The spreadsheets available on this page find the highest priced home a buyer can afford, given assumptions about the buyer’s income, the interest rate and other basic characteristics of a fixed rate mortgage. The spreadsheets come loaded with national averages for the assumptions and include links to sites with current mortgage interest and local property tax rates.
Two versions of the calculator are available, depending on the assumption you prefer to specify. You will need to open them in Microsoft Excel. Download these two calculators by clicking the links below:
Affordable House Price Calculator specifying down payment in dollars
Affordable House Price Calculator specifying loan-to-value ratio
Given the income/mortgage assumptions, the spreadsheet can calculate the maximum affordable house price with a single combined key stroke: ctrl+shift+A. But to run this “key stroke macro,” Excel has to be set up correctly:
Instructions for setting up Excel 2007
Instructions for setting up pre-2007 versions of Excel
You’ll likely find it easier to save the calculators on your local hard drive and use them from there, rather than trying to run them through your web browser.