{
  "endpoint": "rent-affordability",
  "inputs": {
    "income": 60000,
    "monthlyDebts": 600,
    "monthlyUtilities": 180,
    "sharePct": 30,
    "backEndPct": 36,
    "dependents": 0,
    "childcareAnnual": 0,
    "elderlyOrDisabled": false,
    "medicalAnnual": 0
  },
  "result": {
    "maxRent": 1200,
    "limitedBy": "debts",
    "grossMonthlyIncome": 5000,
    "shareOfIncome": 1500,
    "debtAdjusted": 1200,
    "costBurdenRent": 1320,
    "severeCostBurdenRent": 2320,
    "burdenAtMaxRent": "not-burdened",
    "landlordMaxRent": 1666.67,
    "leftOver": 3020,
    "byBenchmark": [
      {
        "id": "conventional-28-36",
        "label": "The 28/36 rule",
        "backEnd": 36,
        "authority": "convention",
        "maxRent": 1200,
        "source": "Lending convention, not a regulation: widely used as the comfortable target for conventional loans."
      },
      {
        "id": "fha-manual-31-43",
        "label": "FHA manual underwriting",
        "backEnd": 43,
        "authority": "fha",
        "maxRent": 1550,
        "source": "HUD Handbook 4000.1 II.A.5.d — above 31%/43% the lender must justify in writing why the loan is an acceptable risk."
      },
      {
        "id": "fha-manual-37-47",
        "label": "FHA manual underwriting, with compensating factors",
        "backEnd": 47,
        "authority": "fha",
        "maxRent": 1750,
        "source": "HUD Handbook 4000.1 II.A.5.d — requires a documented compensating factor and a minimum decision credit score of 580."
      }
    ],
    "federalFormula": {
      "adjustedAnnualIncome": 60000,
      "deductions": 0,
      "thirtyPctAdjusted": 1500,
      "tenPctGross": 500,
      "totalTenantPayment": 1500,
      "boundBy": "adjusted-income",
      "deductionAmountsAreFloors": true,
      "source": "24 CFR § 5.628(a) — total tenant payment is the highest of 30 percent of monthly adjusted income, 10 percent of monthly income, the designated welfare housing payment, the minimum rent under § 5.630, or (public housing only) the alternative non-public-housing rent.",
      "deductionSource": "24 CFR § 5.611(a) — $480 per dependent and $525 for an elderly or disabled family, both adjusted annually by HUD for CPI-W and rounded to the next lowest multiple of $25; medical and attendant-care costs above 10 percent of annual income; and reasonable childcare needed to work or study."
    },
    "thresholds": {
      "burdenedOverPct": 30,
      "severelyBurdenedOverPct": 50,
      "numerator": "gross housing costs, including utility costs",
      "denominator": "gross income",
      "source": "24 CFR § 91.5 — “Cost burden. The extent to which gross housing costs, including utility costs, exceed 30 percent of gross income, based on data available from the U.S. Census Bureau.” Severe cost burden is the same definition at 50 percent."
    }
  },
  "notes": [
    "**The 30% rule is a convention, not a rule anyone set.** No agency caps what an unassisted renter may pay. The number is borrowed from federal housing policy, where it means two other things — the two paragraphs below — and this endpoint returns all three rather than picking one.",
    "**HUD's 30% counts utilities, and that is the correction most rent calculators need.** 24 CFR § 91.5 defines cost burden as the extent to which “gross housing costs, including utility costs, exceed 30 percent of gross income”, and severe cost burden as the same above 50 percent. A household paying exactly 30% of gross in rent is already cost burdened once the electric bill is counted, which is why `monthlyUtilities` exists and why `costBurdenRent` is the threshold **less** that bill. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-24/subtitle-A/part-91/section-91.5",
    "**The other federal 30% is of adjusted income, with a 10%-of-gross floor underneath it.** An assisted household's total tenant payment is the highest of “30 percent of the family's monthly adjusted income” and “10 percent of the family's monthly income” (24 CFR § 5.628(a)), among other amounts. Adjusted income is annual income less the deductions in § 5.611 — dependents, elderly or disabled status, medical costs above 10% of income, and childcare — so it is below gross for any household with children or care costs. Send `dependents`, `childcareAnnual`, `elderlyOrDisabled` and `medicalAnnual` and `federalFormula` computes it. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-24/subtitle-A/part-5/subpart-F/section-5.628",
    "**The § 5.611 deduction amounts are the regulation's figures, and HUD raises both every year.** $480 per dependent and $525 for an elderly or disabled family are what the CFR prints; each “will be adjusted by HUD annually in accordance with the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, rounded to the next lowest multiple of $25”. This API does not claim a current-year adjusted amount, so those two are floors — which makes `federalFormula.totalTenantPayment` at or slightly **above** what a housing authority would charge, the safe direction to be wrong in for anyone planning a budget.",
    "The back-end ceiling is a mortgage ratio applied to rent, and it is labelled as one. 36 is the back-end half of the 28/36 convention; 43 and 47 are FHA's manual-underwriting thresholds, where above 31%/43% the lender must justify in writing why the loan is an acceptable risk and 37%/47% additionally needs a documented compensating factor and a decision credit score of 580 (HUD Handbook 4000.1 II.A.5.d). No regulator sets a back-end ratio for a lease.",
    "The 3x-income screen most landlords apply is the same arithmetic as a 33% share, so `landlordMaxRent` will sit slightly above the 30% answer. It is a screening rule private landlords choose, not law, and it varies by market.",
    "Security deposits, first and last month up front, renters insurance, parking and commuting are not in any of these numbers.",
    "Same math as the calculator page: both call `rentAffordability` in @calcwise/finance, so this answer and https://farbetteroff.com/calculators/rent-affordability-calculator cannot disagree."
  ],
  "meta": {
    "source": "https://farbetteroff.com",
    "calculator": "https://farbetteroff.com/calculators/rent-affordability-calculator",
    "docs": "https://farbetteroff.com/api/v1",
    "disclaimer": "Educational estimate, not financial advice."
  }
}