Some offers on this site come from partners who pay a referral fee when you open an account, request a rate, or get matched with an agent through their links. That fee never changes your price, and it never changes the math: budgets, verdicts, market data, and city rankings are computed from public data before any offer is chosen, and no partner can pay to alter them.
Home values and rents: data provided by Zillow Group (ZHVI and ZORI research series — free public data, used with attribution). Income and population: US Census Bureau ACS 5-year estimates via Census Reporter. Coordinates: US Census Gazetteer files. Mortgage rate: Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey via FRED. Night imagery: NASA Black Marble. City photos: Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons, credited and linked on each page.
We apply the 28/36 rule lenders commonly use: monthly housing costs capped at 28% of gross income, total debt payments at 36%. On top of principal and interest we estimate property tax (your state's average effective rate, from Census/Tax Foundation figures), homeowners insurance (your state's average effective rate, derived from NAIC/industry premium surveys), and PMI (0.6%/yr of the loan while the down payment is under 20%). State averages hide real local variation, and lenders differ.
Everything here is an estimate for orientation, not a recommendation to buy, borrow, or invest. We are not a lender, broker, or licensed financial advisor. Your inputs stay in your browser — no accounts, no server that could store them.