Is 43% still the CFPB's DTI limit for a qualified mortgage?

What replaced it: a price test, not a ratio

Under the current definition a loan is a General QM only while its annual percentage rate stays underthe average prime offer rate (APOR) for a comparable transaction by less than a set spread. The spread depends on the size of the loan, not on the borrower's ratio. The regulation is written as “ 2.25or more percentage points”, so a loan qualifies while it is strictly under the figure in the table.

These are the 2026 dollar amounts. They are indexed to the CPI-U reported the preceding June and republished by the Bureau every December, so they move each year — which is worth knowing if you are reading a source that quotes $110,260. That figure is real, but it is the base amount printed in the regulation text, which then says in as many words to see the official commentary for the current dollar amounts.

12 CFR 1026.43(e)(2)(vi) · 90 FR 57890 — the 2026 threshold adjustment

Debt-to-income did not stop mattering

It stopped being a bright line. Regulation Z still requires a creditor to consider and verify the consumer's monthly debt-to-income ratio or residual income as part of the ability-to-repay determination — 12 CFR 1026.43(c)(2)(vii) and (c)(7). What is gone is the number attached to it.

And the regulatory ceiling was never the only ceiling. Lenders and loan programs set their own DTI overlays, and those are real: a specific lender can decline you at a ratio the regulation has no opinion about. So “there is no 43% rule” is the right answer to the regulatory question and the wrong thing to say to an underwriter.

Where 43% is still a real number

FHA's qualifying ratios for a manually underwritten loan. These are HUD's, not the CFPB's, and they do something narrower than a limit: exceeding them shifts the burden of proof onto the lender rather than disqualifying the loan.

FHA manual underwriting — 31% housing, 43% total debt

HUD Handbook 4000.1 II.A.5.d — above 31%/43% the lender must justify in writing why the loan is an acceptable risk.

FHA manual underwriting, with compensating factors — 37% housing, 47% total debt

HUD Handbook 4000.1 II.A.5.d — requires a documented compensating factor and a minimum decision credit score of 580.

The other number worth knowing is the 28/36 rule — 28% of gross income on housing, 36% on all debt. It has no regulation behind it at all; it is a lending convention, and Far Better Off labels it as one rather than dressing it up as a rule.

What actually counts as debt

Regulation Z defines this too, so nothing has to be guessed. Total monthly debt obligations are the payment on the mortgage itself, any simultaneous loans, mortgage-related obligations — property tax, homeowner's insurance, HOA dues — and current debt obligations including alimony and child support (12 CFR 1026.43(c)(7)(i)(A)).

Everyday living costs are not on that list. Groceries, utilities, phone bills and insurance premiums that are not mortgage-related do not enter the ratio, which is why a DTI that looks survivable on paper can still be tight in a month. And the income side is gross income, before tax — comparing your debts to take-home pay overstates the ratio and is the most common way people frighten themselves with this number.

The paper trail

If you are fact-checking this — and you should, because most of the internet says otherwise — these are the documents, in order.

1. 29 December 2020— the General QM Final Rule is published. Its own summary says it “removes the General QM loan definition's 43percent DTI limit and replaces it with price-based thresholds”. Effective 1 March 2021. 85 FR 86308
2. 30 April 2021 — a second final rule delays the mandatory compliance date to 1 October 2022, so both definitions are usable in the meantime. 86 FR 22844
3. 1 October 2022 — mandatory compliance. From this date the price-based definition is the only General QM definition.
4. Today — the current text of 12 CFR 1026.43 contains no occurrence of the string 43 percent. That is the check worth doing yourself, and it takes about ten seconds.

Use this answer in your own software

The same constants this page is built from are a keyless JSON endpoint — no signup, no API key, CORS open to every origin — so a figure quoted here and a figure from the API cannot disagree:

curl "https://farbetteroff.com/api/v1/debt-to-income?monthlyIncome=7500&housing=1800&otherDebt=650"

The response carries the benchmarks with their sources attached, and its notes say the same thing this page does about the removed limit. See the full API docs.

Common questions

Is 43% still the CFPB limit for a qualified mortgage?

No. The CFPB's General QM Final Rule removed the 43% debt-to-income limit from the General Qualified Mortgage definition and replaced it with price-based thresholds, and compliance has been mandatory since 1 October 2022. The current text of 12 CFR 1026.43 contains no occurrence of "43 percent" at all. A lender must still consider and verify your debt-to-income ratio or your residual income, but there is no longer a numeric ceiling in the regulation. Where 43% is still a real threshold is FHA: 31% and 43% are FHA's qualifying ratios for a manually underwritten loan, and above either one the lender has to justify in writing why the loan is an acceptable risk.

When did the 43% DTI limit go away?

The General QM Final Rule was published on 29 December 2020 (85 FR 86308) and took effect on 1 March 2021. A second rule (86 FR 22844) delayed the mandatory compliance date to 1 October 2022, so loans could be made under either the old or the new definition until then. Since 1 October 2022 the price-based definition is the only General QM definition there is.

What replaced the 43% DTI limit?

A price test rather than a ratio. A loan is a General QM only while its annual percentage rate stays under the average prime offer rate (APOR) for a comparable transaction by less than a set spread, and the spread depends on the size of the loan: for a first-lien loan of $137,958 or more it is 2.25 percentage points, and smaller loans are allowed wider spreads. The dollar amounts are indexed to inflation and republished by the Bureau each December; these are the 2026 figures.

Does debt-to-income still matter to a mortgage lender?

Yes — it stopped being a bright line, not a consideration. Regulation Z still requires a creditor to consider and verify the consumer's monthly debt-to-income ratio or residual income as part of the ability-to-repay determination (12 CFR 1026.43(c)(2)(vii) and (c)(7)). What changed is that no particular ratio makes or breaks the loan's qualified-mortgage status. Lenders and loan programs still set their own DTI overlays, and those are real even though the regulatory ceiling is gone.

So is 43% DTI a bad number?

It is not a regulatory failure, and it is also not comfortable. The widely used The 28/36 rule puts housing under 28% of gross income and all debt under 36% — a lending convention rather than a regulation, but a reasonable target. At 43% you are inside FHA's manual-underwriting ratio, which is where a lender starts having to write down why the loan works. Below 36% is the range where approval stops being the question.

What counts as debt in a debt-to-income ratio?

Regulation Z defines it, so there is no need to guess: total monthly debt obligations means the payment on the mortgage itself, any simultaneous loans, mortgage-related obligations (property tax, homeowner's insurance, HOA dues), and current debt obligations including alimony and child support — 12 CFR 1026.43(c)(7)(i)(A). Everyday living costs are not in that list. Groceries, utilities, phone bills and insurance premiums that are not mortgage-related do not go into the ratio. The income side is gross income, before tax, not take-home pay: comparing debts to net pay overstates the ratio.

Why do so many pages still say 43%?

Because it was true for eight years, it is easy to write, and it is the kind of fact that gets copied from one article to the next without being re-checked against the regulation. The rule that removed it is not obscure — it is a published final rule with a Federal Register citation — but nothing forces a page written in 2019 to notice. If you are checking a source on this, the fastest test is to search the current text of 12 CFR 1026.43 for "43 percent" and see that it is not there.