Disclaimer

MortgagePreApprovalCalculator.com is an independent educational resource. We present publicly available federal-housing data with citations to the underlying regulations, handbooks, and publications. We are not a lender, a mortgage broker, an NMLS-licensed mortgage professional, or a registered investment advisor. Nothing on this site is a loan offer, a guarantee of approval, or personalised financial advice.

Not mortgage advice

Calculator outputs and reference pages are planning anchors, not pre-approval commitments. Mortgage pre-approval is a formal process that requires a licensed lender to pull your credit, verify income with W-2s and pay stubs, review bank statements, and issue a conditional commitment letter. The figures shown here are based on standard underwriting formulas published in the CFPB Ability-to-Repay rule (12 CFR § 1026.43), the Fannie Mae Selling Guide (B3-6 DTI), the Freddie Mac Single-Family Seller / Servicer Guide, the FHA Single Family Housing Policy Handbook 4000.1, and VA Pamphlet 26-7. Your actual lender may apply overlays that produce different results.

No NMLS licensing

We are not licensed as a mortgage broker, mortgage originator, or mortgage loan officer under the Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act (S.A.F.E. Act, 12 USC §§ 5101-5116) in any state. We do not take loan applications, collect borrower information for the purpose of originating loans, negotiate loan terms, or accept compensation tied to loan origination. We provide educational content only. State-by-state mortgage broker licensing is required for anyone who originates residential mortgage loans; we do not engage in that activity.

No affiliation with CFPB, HUD, FHFA, VA, USDA, Fannie Mae, or Freddie Mac

We cite publications from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Agriculture, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any of these entities. All citations are made to publicly available, free-to-access publications. Verify any figure cited on this site against the named source before relying on it for a financial decision. Citation links throughout the site go directly to the source publication.

Rates are sample averages, not lender quotes

Mortgage rates displayed on this site come from the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS), a weekly survey of lenders that reports a national average. PMMS is not transaction data and does not reflect borrower-specific credit, LTV, geography, or loan-amount premiums. Your actual rate from a licensed lender will depend on credit score, debt-to-income ratio, loan-to-value ratio, occupancy type, property type, loan amount, lender overlays, and the day of pricing. Confirm with at least three lenders before locking. The PMMS print may not represent the rate available to you on any given day.

Calculator outputs are estimates

The pre-approval calculator on the home page applies the standard back-end DTI formula to user-entered income, debt, credit-score, and down-payment values. It uses program-specific DTI ceilings (43% conventional standard / 50% via Fannie Mae Desktop Underwriter with compensating factors; FHA 43% TOTAL Scorecard / 50%+ manual underwriting; VA 41% guideline with residual income test; USDA 29 / 41) sourced from the named publications. The output is a planning anchor. A lender's actual pre-approval letter depends on full credit-pull verification, income / asset documentation, employment verification, and underwriting review. We do not warrant the accuracy of the calculator output for any specific borrower.

Affiliate disclosure

Some outbound links on this site may earn us a referral fee if you complete an action with the linked lender or service provider. This is consistent with Federal Trade Commission disclosure rules at 16 CFR § 255 (Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising). Affiliate compensation does not affect our presentation of federal-housing data or our citations to CFPB, HUD, FHFA, VA, Fannie Mae, or Freddie Mac publications. We do not accept compensation in exchange for favourable rate or program coverage.

No fiduciary relationship

Reading this site does not create a fiduciary, agency, attorney-client, or advisory relationship of any kind. Information presented is general in nature and may not apply to your specific financial situation, tax bracket, state of residence, or property type. Consult an NMLS-licensed mortgage professional, a Certified Financial Planner (CFP), or a licensed attorney before acting on any information presented here.

Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Digital Signet and the authors of this site are not liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special, or exemplary damages arising from your use of (or inability to use) the calculators, content, or links on this site. This includes loss of profits, lost data, or lost time. Use of this site is at your own risk.

Corrections

If a DTI ceiling, MIP rate, conforming limit, funding fee, or rate citation looks wrong, email [email protected] with the page URL and the source you are citing. We aim to acknowledge within 5 business days and publish a fix the same working week. See /methodology for the full source ledger.

Refresh cadence

Freddie Mac PMMS rates refresh weekly (Friday after Thursday release). FHFA conforming-loan limits and HUD FHA limits refresh annually (early December after the November announcements). CFPB Ability-to-Repay and Qualified Mortgage rule snapshots and selling-guide hash checks run quarterly. See /methodology for the refresh policy and the GitHub Actions workflow that automates it.

Back to calculator Methodology and source ledger About