Key Takeaways
\nThe 28\/36 rule states that no more than 28% of your gross household income should go toward housing, and no more than 36% of your gross household income on housing, child care costs, and all debt.Child care costs an average of $989 per month, while the average price of a mortgage is $2,127 per month.Child care and mortgage costs take up about 45% of the average household income ($6,977.50), which is well above the 28\/36 rule of thumb.<\/p>\n
As costs continue to rise, determining how much of your income should go to pay for housing versus child care can be challenging.\n<\/p>\n
One rule of thumb states that no more than 28% of your gross income<\/a> should go toward housing, and no more than 36% for housing plus all your debts, as well as child care costs. But are most families able to make this happen?\n<\/p>\n How Much You Should Spend On Housing <\/p>\n For many people, housing costs are their largest monthly expense, but you may wonder if you’re paying more than you should based on your income.\n<\/p>\n The 28\/36 rule can help you determine if you’re overspending on housing. Mortgage lenders and financial experts recommend spending no more than 28% of your monthly gross income on housing, and no more than 36% of your monthly income on housing, child care, and debt.\n<\/p>\n For example, if your household brings in $6,977.50 a month before taxes (the median<\/a> income in the U.S. divided by 12), you shouldn’t be spending more than 28% of that, which is $1,953.70, on housing per month.\n<\/p>\n However, the mortgage for a median-priced home at a 6.36% interest rate with a 10% down payment costs $2,844 per month, and renters pay an average of $2,095 per month.\n<\/p>\n $439,701<\/p>\n The median cost of a house in the U.S. as of October 2025 was $439,701.<\/p>\n Considering Your Childcare Costs <\/p>\n Under the 28\/36 rule, no more than 36% of your gross income should go towards your housing, child care, and debts. If we use our previous example\u2014that is, your household makes $6,977.50 a month\u2014then no more than $2,511.90 of your monthly income should go towards housing, child care, and debts, like student loan<\/a> payments, credit card<\/a> bills, and auto loans<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n The 28\/36 rule appears easy to follow until you realize how much child care costs have risen in the U.S. Here’s what families typically pay.<\/p>\n 2025 Childcare Costs<\/p>\n Average Infant Child Care Cost per Month \u00a0$1,233 Source: Economic Policy Institute<\/p>\n Factoring in Other Debts <\/p>\n Let’s use our previous example of a monthly household income of $6,977.50. If we subtract the maximum allowed housing expense ($1,953.70, or 28%) from the 36% ($2,511.90), you’re left with just $558.20 a month to cover child care, credit card bills, auto loans, student loans, and any other debts. That’s not a lot to work with.\n<\/p>\n If you were paying the average mortgage of $2,844 per month, the average child care costs of $989 per month, the average auto loan cost for a used vehicle of $521 per month, and the average student loan cost of $536 per month, your housing, child care, and debt costs would be $4890, which is over 70% of the average income\u2014well over the recommended 36%.\n<\/p>\n Also consider that many families have two vehicles, two student loan payments, plus credit card debt (the average is $181 per month). If you add those in, the costs that are supposed to not exceed 36% come to 88%.\n<\/p>\n No wonder so many Americans are struggling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Key Takeaways The 28\/36 rule states that no more than 28% of your gross household income should go…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[45,49,48,133,131,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-324845","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-personal-finance","13":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAverage Child Care Cost per Month
\nPercentage of Income Spent on Infant Child Care Costs per Month
\nPercentage of Income Spent on Child Care Costs per Month<\/p>\n
\n$989
\n\u00a014.38%
\n11.61%<\/p>\n