Affordability
Definition of "Affordability"
The definition of affordability in real estate is simply a buyer’s capacity to afford a house. Affordability is usually expressed in terms of the maximum amount a buyer will be able to pay for a house, and subsequently be approved for a loan in order to pay this amount. In real estate, this is known as the maximum affordable sale price, and it can be empirically calculated with relative ease.
To calculate the maximum affordable sales price, you’ll need to take into account three different metrics by which the maximum affordable sales price is calculated. These are the income rule, the debt rule and the cash rule. After calculating each of these numbers, affordability will be the lowest of the three. Let’s take a closer look at each of these rules in turn, and see exactly how they come into play in calculating the maximum affordable sales price.
The Income Rule in Affordability
This rule states that a borrower's monthly housing expense (MHE), which is the sum of the mortgage payment, property taxes and homeowner insurance premium, cannot exceed a percentage of the borrower's income specified by the lender. Once you’ve calculated a buyer’s MHE, you have their maximum affordable sales price according to the income rule.
The Debt Rule in Affordability
The debt rule says that the borrower's total housing expense (THE), which is the sum of the MHE plus monthly payments on existing debt, cannot exceed a percentage of the borrower's income specified by the lender. Once calculated, this number is often lower than the number that you might arrive at using the income rule, making it essential for calculating the maximum affordable sales price.
The cash rule in Affordability
The required cash rule says that the borrower must have cash sufficient to meet the down payment requirement plus other settlement costs. When the cash rule sets the limit on the maximum sale price, the borrower is said to be cash constrained. This number can be raised by lowering the down payment.
Popular Mortgage Terms
A federal agency that guarantees mortgage securities that are issued against pools of FHA and VA mortgages. ...
A request for a loan that includes the information about the potential borrower, the property and the requested loan that the solicited lender needs to make a decision. In a narrower sense, ...
A transaction in which interest is not paid on interest there is no compounding. For example, if you deposit $1,000 in an account that pays 5% a year simple interest, you would receive ...
A letter from a lender verifying that the price and other terms of a loan have been locked. Borrowers who lock through a mortgage broker should always demand to see the lock commitment ...
A lender who delivers loans to another (usually larger) lender against prior price commitments the larger lender has made to the correspondent. Mortgage brokers sometimes evolve into ...
A mortgage that does not meet the purchase requirements of the two federal agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, because it is too large or for other reasons, such as poor credit or ...
The maximum allowable increase in the interest rate on an ARM each time the rate is adjusted. It is usually one or two percentage points. ...
A mortgage Web site that shows mortgage prices posted by participating lenders, in some cases hundreds of them. ...
Same as term Points: An upfront cash payment required by the lender as part of the charge for the loan, expressed as a percent of the loan amount; e.g., '3 points' means a charge equal to ...
Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.