Save more, earn more, or pay down debt? It depends which limit you're hitting.
A co-op or condo budget is capped by whichever runs out first: your income (the debt-to-income limit) or your cash (down payment, closing costs, and for co-ops, the board's post-closing reserves). Pull on the wrong one and nothing moves. This ranks every common lever by how much it raises your maximum price, using the same engine as the co-op and condo calculators.
Assumptions (defaults from our sources page)
Closing-cost line items use the calculators' defaults. Switching between co-op and condo resets the down payment, building charges, and DTI limit to that type's defaults.
Everything is calculated in your browser. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
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- Income allows
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- Cash allows
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- Monthly housing cost
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- Total cash needed
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| # | If you… | New max price | Change | Why |
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Won't help right now (0)
Two ceilings, and you get the lower one. The income ceiling is the most you can borrow while keeping mortgage + building charges + other debts under the DTI limit (28% is the usual co-op board standard; 43% for condo lenders). The cash ceiling is the most your savings can cover: down payment, closing costs, mansion tax at $1M+, mortgage recording tax for condos, and for co-ops, 12 months of mortgage + maintenance left over after closing. Cash savings count in full; investments count at the percentage you set toward the board's liquidity test.
Each lever changes exactly one thing and reruns the same engine the co-op and condo calculators use, so you can reproduce any row there by making that one change. That's why some levers do nothing: if cash is your limit, a raise can't help until savings catch up, and vice versa.
Lower maintenance is worth more than it looks. Every $100/month of building charges eats DTI room that could have carried roughly $19,000 of price at the default 6.95% rate, and for co-ops it also raises the reserves you need. A cheaper apartment with high maintenance can be harder to buy than a pricier one with low charges.
What this can't see: your credit score, lender overlays, a specific board's rules, or whether you can actually find a building with lower charges. To see how long it takes to save the cash side, try the savings planner; to see what a rate change does, try rate sensitivity. See the methodology for what's sourced and what's assumed, and the guides on co-op reserves, income needed to buy, and how rates move buying power.