When buying a home you can save yourself a lot of time if you take a few minutes to calculate how much of a mortgage you can afford.

Generally a mortgage lender will want your monthly mortgage payment to total no more than 29 % of your monthly gross income (that's your monthly income before taxes and other paycheck deductions are taken out.)

You also need to consider current loan interest rates. The lower the interest rate, the more expensive the home you'll be able to afford.

Follow our tips and use these simple calculators to see how much you can afford in a mortgage payment.