What moves your number most

Your Buying Power isn’t one dial — it’s five: your income, your monthly debts, your credit score, the rate you’ll pay, and the cash you bring. They don’t pull equally, and the order in which you work them matters. Here’s each lever, roughly how hard it pulls, and which one to grab first.

The rate — and the score behind it

Rate is the heaviest lever you don’t fully control. The rule of thumb: every 1% the rate rises costs you about 10% of your buying power, because the same monthly payment now services a smaller loan. Even half a point moves your number by roughly 5%.

What you do control is the rate you’re offered — and that’s mostly your credit score. Lenders price in bands of about 20 points, and the gap is real: on a $300k loan, the difference between a score in the low 600s and 760+ runs $150–200 a month — tens of thousands of dollars over the life of the loan. If you’re putting down less than 20%, the score gap widens further, because mortgage insurance is priced by credit tier too (roughly 1.5%/yr of the loan in the low 600s vs. under 0.5% at 760+).

• Below ~640: a 20-point bump often changes your pricing band — the fastest “rate cut” available to you.
• Already 760+: you have the best pricing; this lever is done. Work the others.

Monthly debts — the quiet number-killer

Lenders don’t care about your balances; they care about your minimum monthly payments, because those eat the income that could service a mortgage. The math is blunt: every $500/mo of debt payments costs you roughly $80–100k of home. A $300/mo car payment is quietly holding back about $50k of house.

That also makes debt the most efficient lever: you don’t have to be debt-free — clearing one payment (finish the car loan, consolidate a card) frees its full monthly amount for your mortgage, and your number moves within weeks of the account reporting closed.

Income — the slow, strong lever

Income is the denominator of every affordability ratio, so it pulls hard: roughly, each $10k/yr of documented income adds $40–50k of price at today’s rates. The catch is the word documented — raises, a second job, or steady side income all count, but lenders want to see it on paper (usually with some history). Slow to move, but nothing else raises your ceiling like it.

Cash — and the 20% cliff

Down-payment cash works dollar-for-dollar — $10k more saved is $10k more home — until you hit 20% down, where it suddenly works harder: private mortgage insurance (typically 0.5–1.5% of the loan per year) disappears, and that freed-up monthly payment converts straight into extra buying power. If you own a home already, its equity usually dwarfs what you could save — that’s the single biggest jump available to most move-up buyers.

So which lever first?

• This week: verify what you already have — connecting your bank and a soft credit check don’t change the inputs, but they tighten your range and often lift the number itself.
• This month: clear your smallest monthly debt payment — fastest real gain per dollar.
• 1–2 credit cycles: push your score into the next 20-point band (pay cards below 30% utilization, fix report errors).
• If you own a home: count your equity — one decision, and usually the largest single lift.
• Ongoing: income and savings — slow, but they raise the ceiling everything else works under.