The easiest way to figure out how much money you can spend on a home is to speak with a mortgage lender. A mortgage lender will look at your savings, income and credit to figure out how much you can spend on a mortgage each month. In addition to that they can also provide you with a pre-qualification letter that tells your real estate agent and sellers that you can be qualified for a loan of that size.

In addition to talking with a mortgage lender you should also take into account other factors. A mortgage lender will look only at the numbers of your current situation; they are not taking into account any future events.

Some future events that may cause you to reconsider the amount you are pre-qualified for is if you are planning to have children or if the children you have are going to be starting college in the next couple of years. Both of these events will have large financial burdens on you that you will want to consider.

You will also want to think about your source of income. If you own your own business, is it stable and doing well, will your income likely continue at the same level or more in the future. If you work for a company you will want to think about the security of your job and the companies’ steadiness.

While a mortgage lender can tell you how much mortgage you can afford make sure to think about the security of your financial situation before over extending yourself in a home that is too much money.