House Poor Gauge
You can technically afford a house and still feel broke every month. This gauge mixes your income, your payment and the lifestyle you actually want into one honest number — and shows you the quickest way back to breathing room.
🟡 Getting Tight — Doable, but little margin for surprises.
Raw housing ratio 32.0% × Moderate lifestyle
What "house poor" actually means
Being house poor isn't about defaulting on your mortgage — it's about everything else getting squeezed. Lenders will approve a payment up to ~43% of your gross monthly income, but long before that ceiling, the rest of your life starts to feel tight: dining out, travel, saving for retirement, even small emergencies.
The classic guardrail is the 28% rule: keep housing (principal, interest, taxes, insurance and HOA) under 28% of your gross monthly income. The gauge above starts in the green zone right up to that line — then gets progressively redder as the payment-to-income ratio climbs.
Why lifestyle matters
Two people earning the same salary can have very different comfort levels with the same payment. If you eat in, drive a paid-off car and rarely travel, 32% of gross might still feel fine. If you like nice restaurants, two vacations a year and a newer car, 32% will quietly bankrupt you.
The lifestyle toggle adjusts your strain score by ±15–20% accordingly. It's a rough proxy — but it makes the gauge personal rather than generic.