Enrichment · Life Skills

Run the numbers
before you sign the lease.

Type what you earn and the listing you are looking at. The page shows the share of your pay it would take, whether a landlord would approve you, what is left for everything else, and how much cash you need on the day you get the keys.

Open the calculatorWhat you get

The calculator

The worked example is made up: a first job at $21.50 an hour and three listings. Change any number, or start blank. Nothing you type leaves this browser.

Loading the calculator. If nothing appears, turn on JavaScript.

What you get

Enrichment · Life SkillsFree

What you finish with
The most you can spend on rent and utilities at 30 percent of your pay, and the highest rent that passes a landlord’s income rule; then, for up to three apartments, the share of your pay each would take, whether you pass the rule, every monthly housing cost, what is left after housing and debt payments, the cash you need to move in, the hours of work the rent takes and the wage at which the place would cost 30 percent. A side-by-side chart and table you can print or download.
Who it is for
High school seniors, college students and young adults planning a first apartment, and the families, counselors and teachers of personal finance and life skills classes who help them.
Format
Browser calculator. Works on a phone or a computer; results change as you type. Prints a comparison sheet; downloads a spreadsheet (.csv); export and import a file.
Access
Free. No account, no sign-in and nothing to install. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The Life Skills space in Caveat Enrichment.
Support
Questions, a correction or a request: team@caveatacademic.com.

How to use it

  1. Enter your pay: your hourly wage and hours, or your salary. Add your monthly take-home pay from a pay stub, and any debt payments such as a car or student loans.
  2. Read the dark panel first. It gives the most that fits for rent and utilities before you fall for a listing.
  3. Type in a listing: the rent, how many people split it, and your best guess at utilities and internet. Ask the landlord what the last tenant paid.
  4. Add the move-in costs: deposit, fees and moving. Many first-time renters are caught by this number, not the rent.
  5. Add a second and third place and compare them side by side. Print the sheet and take it to the showing.

Open the calculator

How the numbers are made

Three tests: a share of your pay, a landlord’s rule and what is left.

1 The 30 percent measureRent and utilities ÷ gross monthly pay($1,250 + $95) ÷ $3,726.67 = 36.1%gross pay: $21.50 × 40 hours × 52 weeks ÷ 12 monthsWithin 30%Cost-burdenedSevere30%50%2 The landlord’s screenIncome a 3× rule asks for3 × $1,250 = $3,750a month, before taxesIncome in the example$3,726.67short by $23.33 a month3 The wage that makes it 30 percentHousing wage for this studio$1,345 × 12 ÷ 0.30 ÷ 2,080 = $25.87 an houra year of rent and utilities ÷ 30% ÷ full-time hours in a year1 The 30 percent measureRent and utilities ÷ gross pay$1,345 ÷ $3,727 = 36.1%$1,250 rent + $95 utilities, a monthWithin 30%Cost-burdenedSevere30%50%2 The landlord’s screenIncome a 3× rule asks for3 × $1,250 = $3,750a month, before taxesIncome in the example$3,726.67short by $23.33 a month3 The wage that makes it 30%Housing wage for this studio$25.87 an hour$1,345 × 12 ÷ 0.30 ÷ 2,080 hours
The studio in the worked example: 36.1% of gross pay for rent and utilities, $23.33 a month short of a landlord’s 3× rule, and 30 percent of pay only at $25.87 an hour.

The 30 percent measure

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development counts a household as cost-burdened when housing takes more than 30 percent of its income, and severely cost-burdened above 50 percent. Housing means rent plus utilities, and income means pay before taxes. The page uses the same definition, so internet, insurance and parking are left out of this percentage and counted in your monthly total instead.

The figure is a yardstick, not a rule. It grew out of a 1969 federal law that capped public housing rents at 25 percent of income, raised to 30 percent in 1981. On a small paycheck, 30 percent can still leave too little; on a large one, more can be fine.

The landlord’s rule

Many landlords screen applicants by income: often three times the monthly rent in gross monthly pay, sometimes 2.5 times, and in some markets forty times the rent in annual pay. It is a business practice, not a law, and it varies. When roommates apply together, landlords usually add the incomes; the page checks your share of the rent against your income alone. Falling short usually means a co-signer, a larger deposit or a different place.

What is left, and the housing wage

Left after housing is your take-home pay minus every monthly housing cost and your debt payments. It has to cover food, transport, a phone, health costs and savings. The 50/30/20 guide suggests keeping all needs, housing included, within half of take-home pay.

The last line turns the question around, the way the National Low Income Housing Coalition does in its yearly report: the full-time hourly wage at which this rent and utilities would be exactly 30 percent of pay, using 2,080 hours in a working year.

Sources

  1. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and Research. “Rental Burdens: Rethinking Affordability Measures.” PD&R Edge (2014). The history of the 30 percent standard and its limits.
  2. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy (CHAS) data, background: cost burden as housing costs, utilities included, above 30 percent of income, and severe cost burden above 50 percent.
  3. U.S. Census Bureau. American Community Survey subject definitions: gross rent is contract rent plus the estimated monthly cost of utilities and fuels when the renter pays them.
  4. National Low Income Housing Coalition. Out of Reach (annual report). The housing wage: the hourly wage a full-time worker needs for rent and utilities to equal 30 percent of income.
  5. Warren, E., & Tyagi, A. W. (2005). All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan. Free Press. The 50/30/20 guide.

The worked example is made up, including the wage, the rents and every fee. Your numbers are estimates until a landlord and the utility companies confirm them. Deposit limits, fees and tenant rights differ by state and city; this page gives no legal or financial advice. What you type stays in this browser. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.