A house-poor homeowner is someone who doesn't have much (or maybe any) money left over each month after paying their home-related bills.  Generally speaking, your mortgage payment should amount to about 25% of your monthly take-home pay. This number can go up to 30% if you don’t have debt. But if you’re spending significantly more than that on mortgage payments, property taxes, utilities, and general maintenance, you might be house poor. In other words, you're spending more than you probably should on your home.  Or maybe you've run into unexpected circumstances, like a job loss. Either way, there's an imbalance and your house is weighing you down. It’s possible to find yourself in this situation if you purchased a home outside of your means, if you didn't account for all the utility and maintenance costs that would come with it, or if your interest rate has risen significantly and you can no longer handle payments. Any of these circumstances might result in you depleting your savings. Eventually, this could put you in a position where you go into debt for anything from buying groceries to making car payments.