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The biggest consideration in how much home can you afford is how big a house payment that 
you feel comfortable making each month. Generally speaking, if you have at least half way decent credit, we could probably get you qualified to buy just about any house. Not that is what you would want to have happen, but it does go to show you that if you want a home, ValueList will get you a home!
A couple of things to consider when you are thinking about how much home you can afford are the fact that the interest on the mortgage is going to be tax deductible and if you finance your home with a fixed rate mortgage, you will be locking your payment in for the duration of that mortgage (taxes and insurance can vary, but your principal and interest portion of the payment will stay the same).
Due to the fact that you will have this extra deductible on your taxes, the tax savings can be substantial. Depending upon your tax bracket and the amount of your mortgage, it can be up to several hundred dollars a month (To be fair, you will also be responsible for the maintenance on the home which will eat into this savings, but most people don't look at it that way). If you take the tax savings into account, you can generally afford what you were thinking about your payment being plus the amount of your tax savings. NOTE: ValueList is not a tax adviser for more specific information on this topic please consult a professional tax adviser.
As far your payment being fixed, what do you think your rent payment will be 5 or 10 years from now? If you take a fixed rate mortgage, your payment will pretty much be what it is now, plus any increases or decreases on your monthly tax and insurance bills. Also, if interest rates go down, you should be able to refinance your home and actually lower your payment. When you take this fact into consideration, again, generally speaking, you might feel comfortable with a slightly higher payment than otherwise.
All that taken into account, how much do you want your payment to be? Subtract out the monthly taxes and insurance escrow and that leaves your principal and interest payment. If we figure backwards from that number, we can figure out the highest amount of a mortgage that you can afford. Add to that number the amount of your down payment (if any) and we have how much home you can afford! Confusing? Call Us, we'll help you figure it!
If you want a quick down and dirty figure, then you can roughly figure that you can qualify for about 2 1/2 times to 3 times your gross monthly income. This is a rough figure and I would strongly encourage you to call ValueList. It will only take a minute to income qualify you.
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