House Poor

Being house poor means the mortgage gets paid but everything else gets squeezed. It often starts by buying at the lender’s maximum, where a qualifying payment leaves no margin for saving, investing, or the occasional emergency. A front-end DTI well above the usual comfort range is the early warning sign.

The trap is that the true cost of a home is more than principal and interest. Property taxes, insurance, and ongoing maintenance keep arriving, and they tend to rise over time. A payment that looked manageable on paper can feel suffocating once those layers stack up. This is why a comfort number, the payment that still leaves room in your budget, usually serves you better than the maximum a lender will approve. The right level varies by household.