How much is the house buyout, and can one income carry it?
A house buyout in a divorce is the cash one spouse pays the other for their share of the equity, and it is usually raised by refinancing the mortgage into one name. This tool estimates that buyout, the new loan it takes to fund it, and whether the remaining income is likely to carry the payment.
Everything stays in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere or saved, unless you choose at the end to send it to Alex.
Your numbers
How this is worked out
Each step below is the arithmetic the calculator does, in order, so you can check it by hand or follow it without JavaScript.
- Equity. Home value minus the mortgage balance. If the balance is larger than the value there is no equity to split, and who absorbs that shortfall is a question for the decree.
- Closing costs. The percentage you enter, applied to the home value, not to the loan amount. That is the convention buyout worksheets use, and it is the one version you can check with a calculator. It is a placeholder for the costs of the transaction, not a quote of your actual costs.
- The buyout. The equity share you enter, applied to the equity. By default the closing costs are not taken out of the equity first, because they are normally added to the new loan instead. The checkbox switches that around for a decree that says otherwise.
- The new loan. The existing balance, plus the buyout, plus the closing costs. The new loan has to cover all three.
- Principal and interest. The standard amortization formula, using the rate you entered and a term of 30, 20, 15 years. The rate is your estimate. Nothing on this site quotes you one.
- Debt-to-income. The housing payment, plus your other monthly debts, plus any support you pay, divided by your gross monthly income plus any support you receive.
- The verdict. At or below 45 percent it is likely to qualify conventionally. Between 45 and 50 percent it is tight and a non-QM option may fit better. Above 50 percent a different path is likely, which means selling, an assumption, or adding a co-borrower. Separately, there is a ceiling on how much of the home value the new loan can come to, and above it the verdict will not say likely to qualify conventionally however comfortable the ratio looks. That ceiling is 95 percent when the two of you have both been on title for at least 12 months before the new loan funds, and 80 percent when you have not, because a buyout counts as a limited cash-out refinance only once the house has been jointly owned that long. That is why step 1 asks.
What this tool cannot tell you
It cannot tell you whether you qualify. That depends on your credit, the documentation behind your income, the property, and the specific loan program, none of which this page knows.
- It assumes a conventional loan. FHA, VA and USDA loans have their own limits and their own rules, and an assumption is a different path again. If a conventional refinance is not the right answer for you, this estimate is measuring the wrong thing.
- Support you receive counts as income only when it is documented and expected to continue long enough, and the rules differ between loan types.
- If you leave property taxes, insurance, and HOA dues blank, the payment and the ratio are both understated, because a lender counts them.
- Nothing here is a quote, a pre-qualification, or an approval. No credit is checked and no application is started.