Rent Affordability Calculator (How Much Rent Can You Afford?)
Enter your monthly gross income, and optionally your debt payments and current rent. You'll get affordable rent ranges under the 25%, 30%, and debt-aware 36% guidelines, plus your own rent-to-income ratio.
Before taxes. Annual salary divided by 12
Car loans, student loans, credit card minimums
To check your rent-to-income ratio
Comfortable (25%)
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Leaves the most room for saving and goals
The 30% rule
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The classic affordability guideline
Debt-aware ceiling
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Keeps rent plus debt payments under 36% of gross
Your rent-to-income
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Enter your rent to check
Three lines, one decision
The 25% line protects your savings rate, the 30% line is the classic affordability standard, and the 36% debt-aware line borrows the logic lenders use for debt-to-income ratios: housing plus debt payments together shouldn't crowd out everything else. If a car payment and student loans already take $600 a month, the rent you can genuinely afford drops by exactly that much, which the third number makes visible.
Rent is the budget's anchor tenant
Rent is most people's largest fixed cost, and it's the hardest to change once signed. A rent 5% too high quietly taxes every month of the lease, while every other category flexes. That's why it pays to set the rent ceiling from your overall budget first and shop inside it, rather than falling for an apartment and back-filling the math.
Splitting changes everything
Per-person housing cost is where roommates win: two people splitting a $2,600 two-bedroom each pay under the 30% line of a $52,000 salary, something no studio in the same building would allow. The rent split calculator handles the fair-share math (even, by income, or by room), and our roommate guide covers the conversations. Tracking who pays what afterward is the part Stoia automates with shared roommate spaces.
Frequently asked questions
What is the 30% rule for rent?
A guideline saying housing should take no more than 30% of your gross (pre-tax) income. On $6,000 a month gross, that's $1,800 in rent. It traces back to U.S. housing policy from the 1969 Brooke Amendment and remains the standard screening line for affordability.
Is the 30% rule based on gross or net income?
Gross, before taxes. That surprises people because it makes the rule more permissive than it feels: 30% of gross can be 40% or more of your actual take-home pay, which is why the calculator also shows a more conservative 25% figure.
What is the 3x rent rule landlords use?
Most landlords and property managers require gross income of at least 3 times the monthly rent to approve an application. It's the same math as the 30% rule seen from the other side: rent at one-third of income.
What if I live in an expensive city?
In high-cost metros, many renters land between 30% and 40%, and the budget math still has to close: what you give to rent has to come out of transport, food, savings, or debt payoff. Roommates are the classic release valve, splitting a 2-bed usually beats 1-beds on price per person.
Do utilities count toward the 30%?
The original rule counted total housing costs, including utilities. In practice most people quote bare rent. If your utilities run $150-250 a month, treat the numbers here as ceilings that utilities eat into, not as rent-only targets.
Does this calculator save my numbers?
No. Everything runs in your browser and disappears when you leave. Nothing is uploaded or stored.
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