Mortgage affordability refers to how much you’re able to borrow, based on your current income, debt, and living expenses. It’s essentially your purchasing power when buying a home. The higher your mortgage affordability, the more expensive a home you can afford to purchase.

The term ‘affordability’ is also used to describe overall housing affordability, which has more to do with the cost of living in a particular city. If the cost of housing relative to the average income in a city is high, it will be seen as a less affordable place to live. The two terms are related, but it’s important to understand the difference.

There are many factors that will affect the maximum mortgage you can afford to borrowincluding the household income of the applicants purchasing the home, the personal monthly expenses of those applicants (car payments, credit expenses, etc.), and the expenses associated with owning a home (property taxes, condo fees, and heating costs).