United States DTI CalculatorPart of Cindrus (opens in a new tab)

Front-end, back-end and the old General QM limit

You may have seen 43 percent mentioned next to DTI. Here is where the figure came from and what the CFPB's later rule did with it.

The basic ratio

The CFPB describes DTI as all your monthly debt payments divided by your gross monthly income, and calls it one way lenders measure your ability to manage the monthly payments on money you plan to borrow.

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Front-end and back-end

The front-end ratio uses only the housing payment. The back-end ratio uses all monthly debt payments, housing included. The calculator shows both, with the back-end figure first because it matches the CFPB's definition.

Where 43 percent came from

Qualified mortgages get certain protections from liability under Regulation Z. For the General QM category, the consumer's ratio of total monthly debt to total monthly income was not allowed to exceed 43 percent.

What changed

The CFPB's General QM final rule removes the 43 percent DTI limit from the General QM loan definition and replaces it with price-based thresholds.

What that means for the number

43 percent is not a legal maximum for every mortgage. Criteria used by individual lenders and loan programs are not reproduced on this site.