Rent affordability calculator, four rules side by side.

How much rent can you afford? Take your income, take off what the rules of thumb say rent may use, and compare. This rent affordability calculator shows four of those rules side by side so you can see where they agree: a share of your gross income (30 percent to start), a landlord’s income multiple (3 times to start), the 50 / 30 / 20 budget and a debt ratio. It gives the rent that passes every rule, and it checks a rent you are looking at. All of them are rules of thumb you can change. None is an official limit and none replaces your own budget.

How to use it

1. Type your Income before tax and pick year or month. Add your Take-home pay a month if you want the 50 / 30 / 20 rule.
2. Type Other monthly debts and the Utilities and renters insurance you expect to pay on top of rent.
3. Type A rent to check if you have a place in mind. Leave it at 0 to see only the limits.
4. Open Change the rules to set your own share, the landlord’s multiple and the debt ratio.
5. The big card is the rent that passes every rule. The table shows each rule and, if you typed a rent, whether it passes.

The four rules

• Share of income. Rent plus the costs of renting stay under a share of gross monthly income. At 30 percent, 5,000 a month of income allows 1,500, less 150 of utilities and insurance, so 1,350 of rent.
• Landlord’s multiple. Gross monthly income is at least the rent times a number, often shown as 3 times. 5,000 divided by 3 is 1,666.67. The number is the landlord’s own choice, so ask.
• 50 / 30 / 20. A budgeting idea where about half of take-home pay covers needs, 30 percent wants and 20 percent savings. Here rent, debts and utilities count as needs: half of 4,000 is 2,000, less 400 of debts and 150 of utilities, leaves 1,450.
• Debt ratio. Rent, debts and the costs of renting stay under a share of gross income. At 36 percent, 5,000 gives 1,800, less 400 and 150, leaves 1,250.

In this example the debt ratio is the strictest, so the rent that passes every rule is 1,250. A rent of 1,500 passes only the landlord’s multiple. It is 150 over the share rule, 50 over the 50 / 30 / 20 rule and 250 over the debt ratio. To afford 1,500 under the share rule you would need an income of 66,000 a year. The landlord’s rule needs 54,000, and the debt ratio needs about 68,333.

What 30 percent of income comes to

The share rule gives a lower number than a 3 times rule whenever the share is under a third, so a rent can pass the landlord and still strain your budget. The 30 percent figure comes from housing policy. A HUD USER article says a household is cost burdened if it spends more than 30 percent of its income on housing costs, and that the percent of income measure has been central to HUD’s definition of housing affordability for a long time. It traces the figure to a rent cap in public housing, set at 25 percent in 1969 and raised to 30 percent in 1981. The same article notes the measure is debated, and that other measures look at what a household has left after necessary costs. So 30 percent is a line used to describe burden, not a rule about what you should rent (HUD USER, PD&R Edge, 11 Jan 2021, checked 24 Oct 2026). The article states the views of its authors. This page treats 30 percent as a starting value you can change.

A lower income example

Say gross income is 3,600 a month, take-home pay is 2,900, there are no other debts and utilities with insurance come to 100. The share rule gives 30 percent of 3,600 = 1,080, less 100 = 980. The landlord’s 3 times rule gives 3,600 / 3 = 1,200. The 50 / 30 / 20 rule gives half of 2,900 = 1,450, less 100 = 1,350. The debt ratio gives 36 percent of 3,600 = 1,296, less 100 = 1,196. The rent that passes every rule is 980, set by the share rule. A landlord may accept 1,200, but a rent that high takes about a third of income before utilities.

When the rules disagree this much, the useful question is which of them matches how you live. If you have savings, no car payment and a stable job, a rent near the higher rules may be fine. If you are saving for something big, the lowest number is the safer choice.

What is left, and what it costs to move in

When you type a rent, two more things appear. The first is your rent and utilities as a share of gross income, so you can see which side of the 30 percent line it falls. For 1,500 of rent and 150 of utilities on 5,000 a month, that is 1,650 / 5,000 = 33 percent. The second is what is left from take-home pay after rent, debts and utilities: 4,000 − 1,500 − 400 − 150 = 1,950, or 48.75 percent of take-home pay. That is close to the idea of residual income in the HUD article: what remains after the costs you cannot skip. The page cannot know your food, travel or savings, so treat it as a prompt to check them.

Open Move in costs to type the deposit, in months of rent, and any other fees. The page adds the first month of rent. With the example, 1,500 + 1,500 + 0 = 3,000 is the cash needed on day one. Deposit rules differ by place and landlord, so the page states none.

Things the rules miss

• Where you live. A rent that is a small share of income in one city may still leave little after food and travel in another.
• Your savings and other goals, such as paying down a debt or a deposit for a home.
• Fees and deposits at move in, and rent that rises at renewal.
• A shared home. If you split rent, use your own share of the rent and your own income, or add the incomes and the rent together.

If you are saving to buy, see what a home could cost with the how much house can I afford calculator. To turn a salary into an hourly figure, use the salary to hourly calculator. For a car loan or a card balance that sits in your debts box, try the credit card payoff calculator.