How much rent can I afford?

$
$
$
Rent you can afford
$1,700/mo

the 30% rule alone says $1,750

The rent you are eyeing30.9% of gross
Left after rent$4,133
Rent at your cap$1,700Everything else$4,133Rent cap$1,700The rest$4,133

One month of your gross income, split at your cap. Rent takes the dark slice; $4,133 is everything else.

On $70.0k a year, $1,700 a month is the rent ceiling: the lower of 30% of gross and 36% minus $400 of monthly debts. That leaves $4,133 a month for everything else.

How to use this, and the parts people get wrong
  • The ceiling is the LOWER of two rules: 30% of gross pay, and 36% of gross pay minus what your other debts already take.
  • It uses gross income because every landlord and letting agent screens on gross. Your take-home will make the same rent feel tighter.
  • The 30% line is a convention, not a law. Above 30% you are officially cost-burdened; above 40% severely so.

Where your rent lands

The rent you are eyeing, $1,800, takes 30.9% of your gross: past the 30% cost-burden line. At your cap, $1,700, you keep $4,133 a month for everything else.

$20.4ka year of rent at your cap
40xthe landlord screen: yearly income over 40 is the same 30% line

The cap at every income

Three conventions wide: the comfortable 25%, the 30% line, and a stretched 35%. Your income row is marked.

Yearly income25% rent30% rent35% rent
$30,000$625$750$875
$40,000$833$1,000$1,167
$50,000$1,042$1,250$1,458
$60,000$1,250$1,500$1,750
$70,000$1,458$1,750$2,042
$85,000$1,771$2,125$2,479
$100,000$2,083$2,500$2,917
$120,000$2,500$3,000$3,500
$150,000$3,125$3,750$4,375
$200,000$4,167$5,000$5,833

Questions people ask

How much rent can I afford?
The 30% convention on the seeded figures: $70,000 a year is $5,833 gross a month, so rent up to $1,750. With $400 of monthly debt payments the debt-aware cap is $1,700, and the smaller number wins.
Where does the 30% rule come from?
It is a definition before it is advice: US housing statistics count anyone paying over 30% of gross income for housing as cost-burdened, over 50% severely burdened. Lenders' 36% total-debt ceiling is the same family of line with debts included.
What is the 40x rent rule landlords use?
Most big-city landlords screen for yearly income of at least 40 times the monthly rent. Divide your income by 40 and you get the same number as 30% of gross: it is the identical line, run from the landlord's side.
Gross or take-home?
Gross, before tax: that is how the 30% definition and every landlord screen are written. If you budget from take-home instead, a common equivalent is keeping rent near 40% of net, but check it against your own taxes, not a rule.
Does the cap include utilities and insurance?
No. The conventions cover contract rent only. Heating, power, internet and renter's insurance sit on top, so leaving space under the cap is comfort, not waste.

Method and sources

  • The cost-burden definitionthe 30% and 50% housing-burden lines used in US housing statistics
  • The 36% total-debt linethe lender debt-to-income convention
The calculation

Monthly gross is yearly income over twelve. The cap is the smaller of 30% of monthly gross and 36% of monthly gross minus existing debt payments. The burden of the rent you are eyeing is that rent over monthly gross, read against the 25, 30 and 40% lines.

What these figures do not cover
  • The 30% and 36% figures are conventions and screening lines, not laws; expensive cities run hotter and cheap ones colder.
  • Everything is gross-income arithmetic; taxes differ too much by country to fold in honestly here.
  • Utilities, parking and insurance are outside contract rent and outside the cap.

Tesseract Stock Agent is a professional-grade AI agent that reads the filings and writes what a desk analyst would: this page’s evidence standard, pointed at stocks. Try it on a ticker.

See Tesseract Stock Agent