How Much House Can You Afford in Colorado? A Broker’s Honest Answer
The median Colorado household earns about $97,100 a year (source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024). At today’s wholesale rates, that income qualifies for roughly a $324,000 home with 10% down in a typical Front Range metro. The median Colorado home price is $575,000 in the Denver metro and $515,000 statewide (source: Colorado Association of REALTORS® and DMAR April 2026 Market Trends). The typical Colorado household can afford about 56% of the typical Denver-metro home — tight, comparable to coastal Florida, with the same root cause: insurance.
The rule: in Colorado, your max home price is about 3.3x your gross annual salary with 10% down, no other monthly debts, and today’s wholesale rates in a Front Range metro. With 20% down and clean credit, push it to 3.9x. Colorado has one giant affordability advantage: the lowest effective property tax rate in OnPoint’s nine-state license footprint at 0.49% — less than half of Texas’s rate. But it’s eaten by a fast-growing offset: homeowners insurance is now climbing 12-18% annually statewide as wildfire and hail risk reprice every renewal. In a wildland-urban-interface ZIP code, the multiplier can compress all the way to 2.5x. The line between Front Range affordable and mountain-resort expensive runs through your insurance carrier.
What follows is the math, a salary-by-salary table for Colorado buyers, what the national calculators miss, and how to get a number you can offer on a home with.
Quick answer: Multiply your gross annual salary by 3.3 for a realistic Colorado max home price at 10% down in a Front Range metro. Stretch to 3.9x at 20% down. Drop to 2.5x if you’re buying in a wildland-urban-interface (WUI) ZIP — insurance alone runs $7,000-$15,000/yr on a $600K home in those areas, eating your front-end DTI before the loan officer ever quotes a rate. CHFA’s $25K down payment grant is the single most generous DPA program in our state series.
On This Page
- How Much House Can I Afford in Colorado by Salary?
- How Much More House Do You Get With a Wholesale Broker Rate?
- How Do Lenders Actually Decide What You Can Afford?
- What Are the DTI Limits for Conventional, FHA, and VA Loans?
- Why Is Home Affordability Different in Colorado?
- How Does Your Down Payment Change What You Can Afford?
- What Do National Calculators Get Wrong About Colorado?
- What Are the Most Common Colorado Affordability Questions?
- How Do You Get a Real Affordability Number Instead of an Estimate?
How Much House Can I Afford in Colorado by Salary?
Assumptions: 30-year fixed at today’s wholesale conventional purchase rate (~5.75% as of May 2026, source: Mortgage News Daily), 10% down, Colorado property tax 0.49% effective (statewide average; mountain resort counties run 0.30-0.45%, Front Range metros 0.50-0.60%), Colorado homeowners insurance ~1.05% of home value annually (Front Range standard; WUI/wildfire zones run 1.5-3.5%), no HOA, no other monthly debts, 28% front-end DTI cap. Five levers move your number in Colorado: rate, down payment, debts, HOA, and which side of the wildfire-insurance line your address sits on.
| Gross Annual Salary | Max Home Price (CO Front Range, 10% down) | Approximate Monthly PITI |
|---|---|---|
| $100,000 | ~$334,000 | $2,333 |
| $135,000 | ~$451,000 | $3,150 |
| $150,000 | ~$501,000 | $3,500 |
| $200,000 | ~$668,000 | $4,667 |
| $250,000 | ~$835,000 | $5,833 |
| $300,000 | ~$1,002,000 | $7,000 |
| $400,000 | ~$1,336,000 | $9,333 |
| $500,000 | ~$1,670,000 | $11,667 |
Two things to notice. The median Colorado household ($97,100) qualifies for about $324,000 of home, which lands at 56% of the Denver-metro median home price of $575,000 — reachable in Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Greeley, parts of Aurora, the Western Slope (Grand Junction, Montrose, Durango), and the outer Front Range exurbs. Denver proper, Boulder, and the mountain resort counties are where the numbers stop working on median income. And the 2026 conforming loan limit in Colorado is $832,750 baseline, but climbs to $1,209,750-$1,249,125 in the seven high-cost mountain counties (Eagle, Garfield, Lake, Moffat, Pitkin, Routt, Summit) — FHFA classifies those mountain-resort jurisdictions as high-cost because Vail, Aspen, Steamboat, Breckenridge, and Glenwood Springs home values consistently exceed the threshold. The full 2026 Colorado loan limits live on the /mortgage-colorado/ page.
Run your exact numbers (your rate, your down payment, your county, your WUI exposure, your debts) in our Colorado mortgage affordability calculator. It’s tuned for Colorado’s low property tax and the Front-Range-versus-WUI insurance reality, not national averages.
How Much More House Do You Get With a Wholesale Broker Rate?
The table above uses OnPoint’s current wholesale conventional purchase rate of ~5.75%. The national average retail rate reported by Mortgage News Daily is 6.67%. That 0.92% gap between what a retail bank quotes and what a wholesale broker can access doesn’t sound like much, until you see what it does to your max home price.
Same monthly payment, more house:
| Gross Annual Salary | Max Home at Retail 6.67% | Max Home at Wholesale 5.75% | Extra House You Get |
|---|---|---|---|
| $97,100 (CO median) | ~$301,000 | ~$324,000 | +$23,000 |
| $100,000 | ~$310,000 | ~$334,000 | +$24,000 |
| $135,000 | ~$418,000 | ~$451,000 | +$33,000 |
| $200,000 | ~$620,000 | ~$668,000 | +$48,000 |
| $300,000 | ~$929,000 | ~$1,002,000 | +$73,000 |
Or same house, lower monthly payment:
| Home Price | Monthly P&I at Retail 6.67% | Monthly P&I at Wholesale 5.75% | You Save |
|---|---|---|---|
| $575,000 (Denver metro median) | $3,334 | $3,020 | $314/mo ($113,040 over 30 yr) |
| $668,000 | $3,874 | $3,509 | $365/mo ($131,400 over 30 yr) |
| $1,002,000 | $5,812 | $5,265 | $547/mo ($196,920 over 30 yr) |
| $1,336,000 | $7,749 | $7,020 | $729/mo ($262,440 over 30 yr) |
That’s not a marketing claim. It’s the math of the rate you’re offered. A retail bank quotes from one rate sheet: its own. A wholesale broker sends your file to 20+ wholesale lenders and brings you back the comparison. The rate that wins your file is almost always lower than the rate a single retail desk would have quoted, because wholesale lenders compete for your business in a way no retail bank ever will.
The median Colorado household earns $97,100 and qualifies for $23,000 more home at wholesale. Or it saves $314 a month on the same $575K Denver-metro home, which is $113,040 the retail borrower pays that the wholesale borrower doesn’t. That’s the cost of not comparison-shopping.
How Do Lenders Actually Decide What You Can Afford?
Two ratios. That’s the whole game.
Front-end DTI (the 28% rule). Your total housing payment (principal, interest, property tax, homeowners insurance, HOA dues, metro district assessments, and mortgage insurance) cannot exceed roughly 28% of your gross monthly income. That’s PITI. It sets your max house price. In Colorado, the insurance and metro-district lines are where unexpected expense hides.
Back-end DTI (the 36% rule). Your total monthly debt (PITI plus car loans, student loans, credit-card minimums, child support, alimony) cannot exceed roughly 36% of your gross monthly income. This is where existing debt eats your house budget.
Each loan program sets its own DTI ceiling (the next section breaks them down). What doesn’t change across programs: when your back-end DTI is the binding constraint, every $100 of monthly debt costs you roughly $14,300 of house at today’s Colorado Front Range rates. Pay down a $500/mo car payment before you shop and you unlock roughly $72,000 more house on the same income.
The 3.3x rule isn’t magic. The 28% cap times 12 months equals 3.36 annual income worth of housing payments. Subtract Colorado’s tax-and-insurance overhead (about 1.54% of home value per year in a Front Range metro, before HOA or metro district fees) and divide by the 30-year mortgage factor at today’s ~5.75% wholesale rate, and you land at home price = 3.3x gross income. If rates climb a full point to 6.75%, the multiplier compresses to ~3.0x. With 20% down and no PMI, it stretches to 3.9x. In WUI ZIPs where insurance hits 2.5%+, the same math drops to 2.5x. That’s it.
What Are the DTI Limits for Conventional, FHA, and VA Loans?
The 28/36 baseline is the textbook rule. The actual ceiling depends on which loan program is underwriting your file. Three programs cover the vast majority of Colorado purchases, and each has a different ceiling, which means the same income produces a different max house price depending on which loan you use.
Fannie Mae (Conventional)
- Front-end DTI: Not strictly enforced. 28% is the traditional benchmark guideline.
- Back-end DTI: Normally capped at 36%, but can go up to 45% with strong credit and reserve requirements. Under Fannie Mae’s Desktop Underwriter (DU) automated underwriting, the absolute maximum is 50% (source: Fannie Mae Selling Guide, Section B3-6-02, Debt-to-Income Ratios).
For Colorado buyers, the DU 50% ceiling is the lever that turns a “no” into a “yes” on Denver/Boulder files where home prices stretch front-end DTI to 32%+. The stretch comes with conditions: 700+ FICO, 6-12 months of reserves, low LTV, clean housing history. Below those compensating factors, expect DU to cap you closer to 45%.
FHA (Federal Housing Administration)
- Front-end DTI: Officially set at 31%.
- Back-end DTI: Officially capped at 43%. The FHA’s TOTAL Scorecard automated underwriting approves DTIs of 50% to 57% when the borrower has strong compensating factors: high credit score, large cash reserves, residual income, or a documented history of carrying similar housing payments (source: HUD Handbook 4000.1, Section II.A.5.d, Qualifying Ratios).
FHA loans are heavily used in Colorado’s affordable metros (Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Greeley, Grand Junction, Montrose, Cañon City) because the higher DTI ceiling stretches qualifying income on lower-priced homes. CHFA’s FirstStep and FirstStep Plus programs pair FHA with state-level DPA, requiring a minimum 620 FICO (some lenders accept 580). The Colorado FHA loan limit follows the conforming ceiling at $524,225 baseline and $1,209,750 in the seven high-cost mountain counties, so the program reaches further up the price scale than most Colorado buyers realize.
VA (Department of Veterans Affairs)
- Front-end DTI: None. The VA does not consider or require a front-end housing ratio.
- Back-end DTI: The VA generally prefers a back-end DTI of 41%. However, DTIs of 50% and higher are routinely approved when the borrower exceeds VA’s residual income standard by 20% or more, because VA underwrites primarily to residual income (the net monthly cash left after all obligations), not to DTI (source: VA Lenders Handbook 26-7, Chapter 4, Section 4.07, Income Analysis).
Colorado has the seventh-largest veteran population in the country per capita — over 400,000 veterans, concentrated around Buckley Space Force Base (Aurora), Peterson Space Force Base and the Air Force Academy (Colorado Springs), Schriever Space Force Base, and Fort Carson. VA loans require zero down payment, accept higher DTI than any other program, and don’t price-penalize jumbo loans inside VA limits. A VA-eligible buyer in Colorado can frequently afford 15-25% more house than the same buyer using a conventional or FHA loan on the same income — particularly in Colorado Springs and the Pikes Peak region, where VA loan penetration is among the highest in any non-Hampton-Roads market in the country.
Why Is Home Affordability Different in Colorado?
National calculators use national averages. Colorado isn’t an average state. Five reasons the numbers move.
Property tax is among the lowest in the country. Colorado’s statewide effective property tax rate is about 0.49% — barely half the national average. On a $600,000 Denver-metro home, that’s roughly $2,940/yr in property tax, or $245/month. Mountain resort counties (Eagle, Pitkin, Summit, Routt) often run even lower at 0.30-0.45% effective on the residential assessment rate. The catch: Colorado property tax is one of the more politically volatile lines in your PITI — recent state-level changes (SB22-238, Proposition HH’s failure, the bipartisan property tax compromise) keep moving the math year over year. The headline rate is great; the durability is uncertain.
Homeowners insurance is the fastest-rising line item in your housing budget. Standard Front Range homeowners insurance in Colorado now runs $4,200-$5,200/yr on a $500,000 home — well above the national average. In wildland-urban-interface (WUI) ZIPs, premiums climb to $6,500-$15,000/yr. In designated high-risk fire zones, $7,000-$22,000+/yr is now standard. Per the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, the average Colorado HOI premium has climbed 65% in five years. Hail Alley — the Front Range corridor from Pueblo through Fort Collins — layers a separate hail-claim load onto the wildfire load. Governor Polis and the Division of Insurance announced a roadmap in 2026 to address the crisis, but the absolute numbers are still the highest in OnPoint’s nine-state license footprint behind only Florida.
Metro district assessments are Colorado’s hidden line item. Newer master-planned communities across Colorado (Stapleton/Central Park in Denver, Reunion in Commerce City, Wolf Ranch and Banning Lewis Ranch in Colorado Springs, Sterling Ranch in Douglas County, Anthem in Broomfield, RainDance in Windsor) fund their infrastructure through metropolitan districts that issue bonds repaid via property tax mill levies on top of the county mill. A Colorado metro district can add 10-50 mills (about 0.5-2.5% effective rate) on top of the county base. National calculators don’t know metro districts exist. Read the disclosure documents before you make an offer.
Colorado’s state income tax is moderate (4.4% flat). Colorado switched to a 4.4% flat state income tax (down from 4.55%) as of tax year 2024. A $200,000 W-2 earner in Denver keeps about $8,800/yr more than the same earner in Virginia’s 5.75% top bracket and about $18,000 more than the same earner in California’s 13.3% top bracket. DTI math runs on gross income; your life runs on net. The 28% cap is the same rule everywhere — Colorado’s flat moderate state tax leaves enough net headroom that 45-50% DU stretches are routinely approved on otherwise-strong files.
Mountain counties are seven separate jumbo markets. Eagle (Vail, Beaver Creek), Pitkin (Aspen, Snowmass), Routt (Steamboat Springs), Summit (Breckenridge, Frisco, Dillon, Silverthorne), Garfield (Glenwood Springs, Carbondale), Lake (Leadville), and Moffat (Craig) all carry FHFA high-cost conforming limits of $1,209,750-$1,249,125. Cross those limits and you’re in the jumbo market: different rates, different reserves, different qualifying rules. Ski-resort second-home buyers often shop across multiple of these counties simultaneously — the loan structure on a $1.5M ski condo in Vail is meaningfully different from a $1.5M ski condo in Telluride (San Miguel County, baseline conforming limit only).
How Does Your Down Payment Change What You Can Afford?
The same buyer hits different max prices depending on how much they put down. The reason isn’t “less to borrow.” It’s that small down payments add mortgage insurance (PMI on conventional, MIP on FHA), and that monthly premium eats your front-end DTI cap.
3% down (conventional first-time buyer, or 3.5% FHA). Best for buyers conserving cash. PMI runs $80-$200/month per $100K borrowed. PMI drops off at 20% equity on conventional; FHA MIP stays for the life of the loan unless you refinance out. Lowest down payment, lowest max house price. Both Fannie Mae HomeReady and Freddie Mac Home Possible work alongside Colorado’s state DPA programs.
5% down. A middle path. Less PMI than 3%, still preserves cash. Common for Colorado buyers using bank-statement programs or non-QM. This is also the tier where CHFA Down Payment Assistance stacks most cleanly. The Colorado Housing and Finance Authority offers two stackable options: a grant of up to $25,000 (or 3% of your first mortgage, whichever is less) that you never repay, OR a second mortgage of up to 4% of your loan with deferred repayment until you sell or refinance. CHFA Preferred (conventional, 620 FICO) and CHFA FirstStep (FHA, 620 FICO with some lenders at 580) require completion of an approved homebuyer education course (about $75, available online). For Denver-metro buyers, the NeighborhoodLIFT program adds another $15,000 of DPA in Adams, Arapahoe, Denver, Douglas, and Jefferson Counties — stackable with CHFA on qualifying properties.
10% down. Where the 3.3x rule lands. PMI is smaller and drops off sooner. Most Colorado buyers without family help land here.
20% down. No PMI. Max house price climbs to ~3.9x salary. The hardest number to reach in Denver and Boulder. On a $575,000 Denver-metro home, that’s $115,000 in cash plus closing costs. This is where CHFA’s grant-plus-second-mortgage combo becomes a real lever — stacking CHFA’s 3% grant with their 4% second mortgage can cover 7% of the purchase price, getting a 13%-down buyer into a near-20%-down position with no monthly second-mortgage payment.
The bigger point: in Colorado, your monthly payment moves more than your max house price across these tiers. Going from 5% to 20% down on a $575,000 Denver home cuts PITI by $700-$900/month. That’s not from a smaller loan alone. It’s killing PMI and shrinking principal-and-interest at the same time.
What Do National Calculators Get Wrong About Colorado?
Run the same scenario through Zillow, NerdWallet, and our Colorado-tuned calculator. National calculators get Colorado closer than they get Texas or Florida (CO’s averages aren’t wildly different from national), but three real gaps remain.
They use 1.0% national property tax. Colorado runs 0.49% effective — meaning the national calculator massively underestimates your max house price by inflating your tax line. National calculator: your $200K salary qualifies for $650K. Colorado-tuned math: you actually qualify for $668K-$685K on a Front Range purchase. The property tax difference alone is worth $20-30K of additional house.
They use 0.35% national homeowners insurance. Colorado Front Range is 0.9-1.2%. WUI is 1.5-3.5%. High-risk wildfire zones can exceed 4%. That’s where the Colorado disconnect lives. National calculator: $200/month for insurance. Colorado reality: $400-$1,200/month depending on ZIP. The property-tax win gets eaten 1.5-2x by the insurance loss.
They miss metro districts entirely. If you’re shopping a master-planned community in north Denver, Douglas County, Adams County, or the I-25 corridor north of Fort Collins, your effective property burden often hits 0.9-1.8% — not the 0.49% the national calculator pulls from a state-average database. Metro district mill levies are real and load-bearing in dozens of Colorado submarkets. National calculators don’t even know they exist.
Worked example. Buyer at $200K Colorado salary, 10% down, today’s wholesale rate, Sterling Ranch (Douglas County, metro district). National calculator: about $650,000. Colorado-tuned math with the metro district loaded in: about $540,000. The $110,000 gap isn’t a difference of opinion. It’s the calculator pretending you live in a state without metro districts.
What Are the Most Common Colorado Affordability Questions?
Can I afford a $300K house on a $65K salary in Colorado?
Possible in an affordable Colorado metro. A $65K Colorado salary at 10% down qualifies for roughly $217,000 in a Front Range metro. Stretching to $300K on $65K takes either 20%+ down (~$60K cash), zero other debts, top-tier credit, or a CHFA DPA stack plus an FHA loan with DU compensating factors. In the affordable Colorado metros (Colorado Springs outer suburbs, Pueblo, Greeley, Loveland eastern half, Grand Junction, Montrose, Cañon City, parts of Aurora and outer Denver), $300K homes still exist. With FHA at 3.5% down, a 640+ FICO, and the CHFA $25K grant covering most of your down payment, the math gets workable.
What salary do you need to afford a $400,000 house in Colorado?
About $120,000 in gross income at 10% down, today’s ~5.75% wholesale rate, no other debts, in a Front Range metro with typical 0.49% property tax and 1.05% insurance. Add $400/mo of car-and-card debt and you need closer to $134K. In a WUI zone with 2.5% insurance, the same $400K home requires $158K+ gross. $400K homes in Colorado today live across Colorado Springs proper, Aurora outer ring, Thornton, Westminster, Lakewood, Arvada, parts of the Tri-Cities (Brighton, Commerce City, Northglenn), Fort Collins outer ring, and Pueblo’s upmarket neighborhoods. Conforming, no jumbo penalty.
How much house can I afford in Colorado with a $200,000 salary?
About $668,000 at 10% down in a Front Range metro at today’s ~5.75% wholesale rate, Colorado-typical taxes and Front Range insurance. With 20% down, climb to about $775,000. In a WUI zone with 2.5% insurance, the $200K salary qualifies for closer to $510,000 instead. At $668K you’re still under the $832,750 conforming limit in every Colorado county except the seven mountain-resort high-cost counties, so the full lender pool is in play. The $200K-salary tier puts you in target range for the better Denver suburbs (Highlands Ranch, Castle Rock, parts of Centennial, Greenwood Village, Cherry Creek edges), Fort Collins proper, Boulder’s outer ring, and Colorado Springs’ northwest corridor.
How much do I need to make to afford a $500,000 house in Colorado?
About $150,000 in gross income at 10% down in a Front Range metro, or about $129,000 at 20% down. $500K homes are common across most of the Denver metro (Lakewood, Arvada, Wheat Ridge, Aurora, Highlands Ranch), Fort Collins, Loveland, Colorado Springs’ better neighborhoods, and Boulder’s eastern outer ring. Still under the $832,750 conforming loan limit everywhere outside the seven mountain-resort counties, no jumbo penalty.
I make $100,000 a year. How much house can I afford in Colorado?
About $334,000 at 10% down in a Front Range metro. With 20% down and no other debts, push to about $390,000. If your $100K is W-2 with strong job tenure and $25K+ in reserves, some lenders will stretch back-end DTI to 45-50% and get you to $390K-$420K. Above that, you’re using the loan to live thin. The good news: $334K covers a lot of Colorado outside Denver-Boulder. The median home price across Colorado Springs eastern half, Pueblo, Greeley, Grand Junction, Montrose, and Western Slope communities sits at or below that line.
Should I buy at my maximum approval amount?
No. Your maximum approval is the lender’s risk tolerance, not your life budget. The lender doesn’t price your retirement contributions, your kids’ activities, your car maintenance, your future vacations, the next wildfire evacuation, or the year your insurance premium jumps 25%. Most Colorado households should target 75-85% of the lender’s max approval. Buying at 100% of max is how new homeowners describe themselves as house-poor 18 months later — particularly in Colorado, where annual insurance renewals are the most unpredictable line item in your PITI.
How Do You Get a Real Affordability Number Instead of an Estimate?
Calculators get you in the ballpark. Two things get you a number you can offer on a home with.
Pre-approval, not pre-qualification. Pre-qualification is a 5-minute self-reported estimate. Useless. Pre-approval is a real underwriter reviewing your real W-2s, real tax returns, real credit pull, real assets, and real debts, then issuing a written letter you can submit with an offer. In a Colorado seller’s market — Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, and the mountain-resort markets especially — a listing agent reads your pre-approval letter before they read your offer. A pre-qualification letter gets your offer thrown out.
A wholesale broker pulls a more accurate number than a retail bank. A bank’s pre-approval reflects what that bank will lend you (one underwriting box). A wholesale broker submits your file to 20+ wholesale lenders and brings back the comparison: which lender stretches DTI hardest for your scenario, which has the best high-cost-county jumbo pricing if you’re crossing the conforming line in Eagle or Summit, which competes hardest on Colorado’s self-employed tech-corridor and gig-economy borrowers. The pre-approval number you carry into your house hunt should be the best of those 20, not the first one you got.
That’s what we do at OnPoint Mortgage Pro. Colorado-licensed (alongside California, Florida, Idaho, Maryland, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia), headquartered in Irvine, serving Colorado buyers and homeowners across the Front Range, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Boulder, Western Slope, and every mountain-resort market in between. We don’t sell one bank’s loan. We shop your file across the wholesale market and bring you the comparison sheet. The pre-approval number that lands on your phone is the one that wins for your scenario, not the one a retail loan officer happened to pull.
Model your scenario in our Colorado mortgage affordability calculator, then tell us what you’re trying to buy and we’ll send your file to 20+ wholesale lenders simultaneously. Or call us directly at (877) 870-0007. The comparison sheet comes back with the lowest total cost on a Colorado loan we re-verify is still the best one all the way to funding.
Ask any Colorado broker what your pre-approval number would be at their best 5 lenders, side by side. If they can only quote one, walk. Call us at (877) 870-0007 and we’ll show you the sheet.
See Also: Affordability in Other Licensed States
- How Much House Can You Afford in California? — same analysis tuned to California’s 1.25% property tax, wildfire insurance, and 13.3% state income tax. CA multiplier: 3.3x at 10% down.
- How Much House Can You Afford in Texas? — same analysis tuned to Texas’s 1.7% property tax, hurricane and hail insurance, and no state income tax. TX multiplier: 2.9x at 10% down.
- How Much House Can You Afford in Florida? — same analysis tuned to Florida’s 0.85% post-homestead property tax, the highest homeowners insurance in the country, and no state income tax. FL multiplier: 3.0x at 10% down inland, 2.5x on the coast.
- How Much House Can You Afford in Virginia? — same analysis tuned to Virginia’s 0.78% property tax, low-cost insurance, 5.75% state income tax, and the NoVA high-balance conforming reality. VA multiplier: 3.4x at 10% down (the highest in our state series).
- How Much House Can You Afford in South Carolina? — same analysis tuned to South Carolina’s 0.55% effective property tax (the 4% owner-occupied assessment ratio), coastal wind insurance reality, and Palmetto Heroes DPA. SC multiplier: 3.5x at 10% down inland (highest in our series), 3.0x coastal.
- How Much House Can You Afford in Maryland? — same analysis tuned to Maryland’s 1.0% county property tax (1.40% in Baltimore City), the highest median household income in our series, the Montgomery and Prince George’s high-balance conforming window, and Maryland Mortgage Program DPA stacks. MD multiplier: 3.4x at 10% down.
- How Much House Can You Afford in New Hampshire? — same analysis tuned to New Hampshire’s 1.85% average property tax (Carroll 1.06% to Sullivan 2.38%), no broad state income tax, the Rockingham/Strafford Boston-metro high-cost conforming window, and NH Housing’s 4% forgivable DPA. NH multiplier: 3.1x at 10% down in a typical town.
- How Much House Can You Afford in Idaho? — same analysis tuned to Idaho’s 0.43% effective property tax (tied with CO for lowest in our series), the wildfire-WUI insurance crisis, 5.3% flat state income tax, Teton County’s Jackson-Hole-spillover high-cost conforming window, and IHFA’s repayable second-mortgage DPA up to 8% of sales price. ID multiplier: 3.6x at 10% down in Treasure Valley (highest 20%-down multiplier in our series at 4.3x), 2.8x in WUI zones.
This completes the affordability breakdown for all nine states OnPoint Mortgage Pro is licensed in.
Victor Santos, NMLS #888844, is a Senior Loan Officer and licensed mortgage broker serving Colorado buyers and homeowners. OnPoint Mortgage Pro (NMLS #2134550) is licensed in California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Maryland, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia. The affordability examples on this page use representative market assumptions as of May 2026 for illustration; your actual qualifying amount depends on your specific rate, credit, down payment, debts, property location, county property-tax rate, metro district assessments, wildfire exposure, and lender. Rates change daily. See today’s rates or call (877) 870-0007 for a current quote. Run your scenario through our Colorado mortgage affordability calculator or contact us for a written pre-approval. Equal Housing Lender.



