The honest answer is that it depends less on the price of the house than on three things people rarely have in front of them: your monthly debts, the Harris County tax bill, and the insurance quote. In Houston those last two do more damage to a payment than most buyers expect, and they are the reason a national affordability calculator overstates what you can buy here.
So rather than give you a multiplier, here is the arithmetic we actually run, with the Houston numbers in it.
Underwriting looks at your debt-to-income ratio — every monthly debt payment, including the new mortgage, divided by your gross monthly income. On most conventional files that total lands at or under 43–45%, and it can go higher with strong reserves or a large down payment.
Notice what is in that number and what is not. Your car payment, student loans, credit card minimums and child support all count. Your groceries, utilities, phone bill, daycare and 401(k) contribution do not. That is why the number a lender approves is often larger than the number you are comfortable paying, and why the second one is the one that matters.
These are estimates, and the assumptions under them are listed below so you can see exactly what would change the answer. The second column is the one to pay attention to, because almost nobody has zero other debt.
| Household income | Estimated max price, no other debt | With $500/month of other debt |
|---|---|---|
| $75,000 | about $314,000 | about $251,000 |
| $100,000 | about $427,000 | about $364,000 |
| $150,000 | about $654,000 | about $591,000 |
| $200,000 | about $880,000 | about $817,000 |
Assumptions: 30-year fixed at 6.25%, 5% down, a 43% total debt-to-income ratio, property taxes at 2.0% of price, homeowners insurance at $200 a month, and mortgage insurance at 0.4% of the loan amount a year. Change the rate and every row moves. Change your debts and every row moves more.
Two things worth noticing in that table. First, $500 a month of car and student loan payments costs you roughly $60,000 of buying power — more than most people would guess, and more than they could make up with a bigger down payment. Second, at $200,000 of income you are pushing past the 2026 conforming loan limit of $832,750, which means a jumbo loan and a different set of requirements.
It is free, it reduces the taxable value of your primary residence, and it caps how fast the assessed value can rise year to year. File it for the year you close. A surprising number of Houston buyers never do, and it costs them every year afterward.
On a brand new home, the first tax assessment is often based on the lot rather than the finished house. The escrow set up at closing can be built on that low number, and when the home is assessed as built, the payment jumps. Ask what the payment looks like fully assessed before you commit, not after.
Flood zone status, roof age and claims history all move the premium, and the range across Harris County is wide. This is the single most common reason a payment estimate turns out to be low.
Many newer Houston-area subdivisions sit in a municipal utility district, which adds to the tax rate. Two houses at the same price in different subdivisions can carry meaningfully different payments.
Everything above is the ceiling. The useful question is what payment you want to live with, and it is worth answering before you go shopping, because it is much harder to answer once you have seen a house you like.
Work backward from the payment instead of forward from the price. Pick the monthly number you would be comfortable with if your income did not change for three years, and we will tell you what price that buys at today's rates, with the real Harris County tax rate for the specific neighborhood.
Get a Houston pre-approval, or run the numbers yourself with our affordability calculator and payment calculator.
Estimates on this page are illustrations, not loan offers or a commitment to lend. Actual qualification depends on credit, income documentation, the property and the program. Texas United Mortgage, LLC, NMLS #2442778. Equal Housing Lender.