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Buyer Confidence Score: how it works
Your Buyer Confidence Score is a weighted blend of five components of home-buying readiness — affordability, down payment, debt-to-income, credit health, and cash reserves — each scored 0–100 from your own figures and standard, published lending guidelines.
Step by step
- We estimate a full monthly payment (principal, interest, property tax, insurance, and PMI when the down payment is under 20%) for your target price using a standard amortization formula.
- Affordability compares that payment with the widely published ~28% housing-payment guideline; debt-to-income compares all monthly debt with the ~36% guideline.
- The down-payment component assumes you put up to 20% down (avoiding PMI) and keep anything above that as reserves; reserves are measured in months of housing payment lenders like to see.
- Credit health is scored from your self-reported band and the rate tier it typically unlocks — educational only, no credit pull.
- Your estimated price range is found by solving for the price whose full payment fits the debt-to-income guideline given your income, debts, and savings.
The math
Monthly P&I = L·r/(1−(1+r)^−n) with monthly rate r and n payments (public-domain amortization). DTI guidelines per the classic 28/36 rule.
Sources
- Standard amortization mathematics (public domain).
- The 28/36 debt-to-income guideline as published by consumer-finance references.
- Current illustrative rates from the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, dated on-screen.
The exact component weightings and banding thresholds are proprietary; the inputs, payment math, and guidelines above are fully disclosed.