The math at $400k
$400,000 a year is $33,333 a month gross; the 28/36 guideline allows ~$9,333 for housing and $12,000 for all debts. Take-home lands very roughly around $20,000–$22,000 a month — California's top brackets bite hard here — so the guideline payment is, once more, about 44% of net.
Worked example at 7% (an example rate): $1.4M home, 20% down → $1.12M loan → $7,451 P&I + ~$1,342 property tax + ~$375 insurance = ~$9,170 a month, right at the guideline. Reaching $1.7M generally takes a larger down payment (25%+), a rate meaningfully below 7%, or a conscious decision to live past the guideline — which some clean-balance-sheet files do, knowingly. Knowingly is the operative word.
Which rulebook: your county decides
That $1.12M loan is high-balance conforming in high-cost counties (the 2026 limit there is $1,249,125 — LA, Orange, and most of the Bay Area qualify) but jumbo in counties at the $832,750 baseline, and several counties sit at limits in between. Same house price, different underwriting world, potentially different rate. Three moves worth knowing from the $300k guide, which apply doubly here:
- Look up your county's exact limit before you shop — it changes what a given down payment accomplishes.
- Structure can move you across the line: a larger down payment or an 80/10/10 piggyback keeps the first loan conforming when that prices better.
- Price both sides anyway: banks compete hard for strong jumbo files and sometimes beat conforming pricing outright. This is a get-three-quotes bracket.
Jumbo expectations, concretely
- Reserves: commonly 6–12 months of full housing payments in liquid or near-liquid accounts after the down payment — on a $9,000 payment, that's $55,000–$110,000 you need to still have on closing day.
- Documentation: heavier, slower, and less forgiving. Two appraisals appear on some larger loans.
- DTI: often capped tighter than agency loans (~43%), and calculated on income the underwriter accepts, not the income you earn — which is the next section.
When your W-2 says $400k and underwriting says $300k
At this bracket, comp is usually salary + bonus + RSUs, and the haircut rules are where budgets go to shrink: variable comp typically needs a ~2-year history, gets averaged, can be discounted for volatility, and vesting that ends soon may not count at all. New job with a big base? The base usually counts with an executed offer; the equity mostly doesn't, yet. The practical rule: get fully underwritten — not pre-qualified — before you fall for a specific house, and size the budget on the number underwriting accepts. If your comp is concentrated in one volatile stock, treat that concentration as part of your housing risk too: the same downturn that cuts your comp can cut your ability to refinance out of trouble.
How your credit score changes this
Jumbo lenders typically want 700+ and reserve their best tiers for 740–780+ files — and at seven-figure loan sizes, each pricing step is a serious check:
| Score band | What it typically means for a conventional loan |
|---|---|
| 780+ | Best pricing tier under the current agency grids |
| 740–779 | Strong — small pricing add-ons at most lenders |
| 700–739 | Solid — noticeable pricing add-ons start here |
| 660–699 | Approvable — pricing and mortgage-insurance costs step up meaningfully |
| 620–659 | Conventional floor territory — FHA often prices better here |
| Below 620 | Conventional is out; FHA allows 580+ at 3.5% down (500–579 requires 10% down) |
For the same monthly payment, a rate three-quarters of a point higher carries roughly 7% less loan — on a $1.12M loan, the strong-file-vs-fair-file gap can be worth $75,000+ of house. There's also an interaction unique to jumbo: weaker scores don't just price worse, they trigger more reserve requirements and tighter DTI at many lenders — the file gets harder in three dimensions at once. High earners rarely have thin credit, but they do have busy credit: keep it silent from application through closing.
The ceiling isn't the assignment
Property tax alone on a $1.6M purchase runs $18,000–$20,000 a year, the supplemental catch-up bill arrives months after closing, and the mortgage-interest deduction caps at the interest on $750k of balance — so the marginal million of house is financed with mostly after-tax dollars (the $300k guide walks the SALT details; bring your CPA in before you set the budget, and see our CPA guide if you don't have one). Temporary buydowns and points are worth pricing at this scale. Buying the absolute maximum, at the bracket where comp is most cyclical, usually isn't.