<prompt> Human: Im not here to brag or anything like that, I am a 29 year old developer who makes around 550k-600k per year salary with 3 kids Wife is pregnant with 4th and I really feel like we should own a home instead of renting. Currently were paying 2800 per month and aside from a few credit cards 2 with 500 limits and 1 with 1000 limit and student loans total 15,000 student loan debt. When I put the numbers in online mortgage affordability calculators they come out with crazy numbers like 3 million dollar homes..etc however Id like some advice on realistically how much money on a home should I be looking for? and maybe some advice on the best banks to with?  <response>: I am a 29 year old developer who makes around 550k-600k per year How much house can I afford?Realistically, you can afford anything for sale that would meet your needs. How much do you want to spend?A million dollar mortgage is just under 5,000 monthly payments for principal and interest, then there are property taxes on top of that, so call it 6000. Your gross income is about 45,000month as you describe it. Do you see the issue with coming in here and asking how much you should spend on your house? You could in theory take out a 2M mortgage and pay it easily. At least while you have this income, which statistically you probably wont have forever, but thats a different topic. 