Don't buy the truck yet

March: a young couple walked into a dealership on 16th Ave. They signed for a brand new Silverado. Fifty-eight thousand dollars. $780 a month. It felt good. They earned it.

June: their mortgage broker called with a new approval. It was $115,000 lower than before. The townhouse they had picked out was gone from their budget. Nothing about their income had changed. Only one number on their file was different — a new $780 monthly debt payment.

Why the truck ate the house

Lenders do not just check if you can pay a mortgage. They check the ratio betweenall your monthly debt payments and your income. This is called your debt-service ratio. A truck payment counts. A furniture-on-payments plan counts. Even an iPhone on a $60/month tab counts.

Rule of thumb: every $600/month of new debt payment reduces the mortgage you can get by roughly $100,000. Exact numbers depend on rates, income, and the lender — but this rough rule is close enough to scare you into waiting.

The same couple, two files

What counts as "debt" to a lender

• Car loans and leases (yes, leases too)
• Credit card minimum payments (based on your balance)
• Lines of credit — even ones you never use, if drawn
• Student loans in repayment
• Furniture, appliances, and phones on financing plans
• "Buy now, pay later" installments that report to credit bureaus

The lender adds all these minimum monthly payments together. Then they subtract that total from the room in your budget. What is left is what they will lend for the house.

The Alberta edition

We know. The truck is part of the plan. The trailer. The boat. The upgrade you have been picturing since the last raise. None of this goes away. It just needs to wait a few months.

The rule for the next 6 months

If you are seriously buying a home in the next 6 months, pause every new financing conversation. Not "reduce." Pause. That includes:

• Vehicles — new, used, lease, financed.
• Furniture on payments — even the "no interest for 12 months" ones.
• New phones on device tabs.
• Buy-now-pay-later on big purchases.
• New credit card applications (the hard inquiry alone can dip your score).

The dealership will be there in June. Your dream house might not.

General education, not personalized advice. Debt-service math varies by lender and program. Talk to a licensed mortgage professional about your own numbers.