Physician Mortgage Loans for MDs and DOs
MDs and DOs are the borrower every one of these programs was built for. Eligibility is almost never the question. The question is when in your career to use it, because the answer changes three times between your last year of residency and your fifth year as an attending.
HouseCall is not a lender or a mortgage broker. We match you with a lender who can help you with a physician mortgage based on your exact situation.
When You Buy Matters More Than Whether You Qualify
You will qualify. Every program that exists names MD and DO first. What varies is how much house you can buy, and that depends entirely on which income a lender is allowed to look at.
AAMC puts median education debt at $205,000 for graduates who borrow. That number does not change much between your last year of residency and your first year as an attending. Your income roughly triples.
So the same person, with the same debt, gets three very different answers depending on when they apply.
| Where you are | Income a lender sees | What they can use |
|---|---|---|
| First-year resident | $68,166 | Current pay stubs |
| Seventh-year fellow | $89,187 | Current pay stubs |
| Signed attending contract, not started | $210,040 to $559,030 depending on specialty | The contract itself, before your first paycheck |
| Attending, already working | Median $275,930 | Pay stubs and a W-2 |
Resident stipend figures are AAMC. Physician wage figures are Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025, ranging from $210,040 for general pediatrics to $244,180 in family medicine, $391,490 in anesthesiology and $559,030 in pediatric surgery.
Buying During Residency
This is the hardest version, and it is still done constantly.
On $68,000 to $89,000 you are buying a house priced like a resident’s house, not an attending’s. The programs will lend you the full purchase price with nothing down, but the monthly payment still has to fit inside a resident’s income, and your student loan payment is competing for the same room.
Two things determine whether it works. The first is whether your loans are deferred or on an income-driven plan, and whether the lender counts your real payment or a percentage of the balance. The second is how long you will be there. Buying for a three-year residency and selling at the end, with no equity built and closing costs on both ends, frequently loses money. Buying for a seven-year path is a different calculation. There is more in our guide to buying a house during residency.
Buying on a Contract You Have Not Started
This is the sweet spot, and it is the single most valuable feature of a physician mortgage.
You sign an attending contract and you finish residency in June. Between those two dates a lender will let you qualify on the attending salary you have not earned yet. That is the difference between a $300,000 house and a $700,000 one, on the same day, with the same bank account.
Published windows run from about 60 days out to 150 days before you relocate or start, with 90 days the most common. Some lenders will look at a start date further out case by case. What the contract has to say, and the one condition that derails the most purchases, are covered in buying with an employment contract.
If you are finishing training and you have a signed contract, this is the window. It closes once you are established, because at that point you are just a well-paid borrower and an ordinary loan may serve you as well.
Buying as an Established Attending
Once you have a year or two of attending pay stubs, the picture flips.
Your income now qualifies you for a large loan through ordinary channels. The physician program still buys you two things: no mortgage insurance with little or nothing down, and gentler treatment of student debt. If you have paid the loans off and have 20 percent saved, the advantage largely disappears and you should compare a conventional quote seriously.
The exception is a big purchase in an expensive market. Physician programs commonly reach $2,000,000 to $2,500,000, well past the 2026 conforming limit of $832,750 that caps an ordinary mortgage, and they get there with less money down than a jumbo loan would require.
How Your Student Loans Get Counted
On a $205,000 balance, the rule a lender uses is worth more to you than a quarter point of rate.
| How the program counts it | Added to your monthly debts |
|---|---|
| Excluded when deferred 12 months or longer | $0 |
| Your actual income-driven payment | Whatever your servicer bills |
| 0.5% of the balance | $1,025 |
| 1% of the balance | $2,050 |
On a first-year resident stipend of $68,166, which is $5,681 a month before taxes, a $2,050 student loan line leaves almost nothing for a mortgage. The same balance counted at an income-driven payment of a few hundred dollars leaves real room. Nothing about you changed between those two rows.
This is why the question to ask a lender first is not the rate. It is how they count a deferred or income-driven balance. Our explainer on how student loans are counted will show you what each program would do with your number.
How Long After Training You Stay Eligible
Most programs set a window of roughly ten years past residency or fellowship. Past that, you are out.
It is not universal. A few programs have no cutoff at all, and at least one keeps you eligible indefinitely but requires a larger down payment once you are more than ten years out. If you have been told you aged out, that was one program’s rule, not the category’s.
This is the single most common reason an established physician is wrongly told no.
What These Loans Actually Give a Physician
Ranked by what matters most on a doctor’s application.
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- Qualification from a signed contract before you start. Nothing else in mortgage lending does this, and for anyone finishing training it is worth more than every other feature combined.
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- No private mortgage insurance. On an ordinary loan with little money down, this insurance protects the lender and pays you nothing, and it runs roughly 0.46 percent to 1.50 percent of the loan every year.
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- Little or no down payment. Programs commonly lend the full purchase price up to a million dollars or more, then ask for a down payment above that.
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- Student debt counted differently. Several programs state that loans deferred 12 months or longer are left out of the decision entirely.
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- Loan amounts well above the $832,750 conforming ceiling, with some programs reaching $2,500,000 or more.
No single lender offers all of it on the same terms, and the differences are what decide where you should apply.
What It Costs and What to Watch
The rate is often adjustable rather than fixed, meaning it is locked for a set number of years and can then move. There is also frequently a small premium over an ordinary loan. Get both quotes on the same day and compare the full monthly payment, because a higher rate with no mortgage insurance often costs less per month than a lower rate with it.
The bigger risk for a physician specifically is mobility. Residency ends, fellowships end, first attending jobs end sooner than people expect. Zero down means zero equity, and selling a house you have owned for two years usually costs more than you would guess once you add both sets of closing costs. If there is a real chance you move within three years, renting is often the cheaper answer and nobody selling you a mortgage will say so.
Our physician mortgage payment calculator puts a number on that. Enter a price and a down payment and it shows the same house on both loans, with the mortgage insurance a conventional lender would add.
Common Questions From MDs and DOs
Can I Get a Physician Mortgage as a Resident?
Yes. Residents and fellows are named directly in nearly every program, and current training pay is accepted. The limit is the payment your resident income can carry, not your eligibility.
Will a Lender Use My Future Attending Salary?
At these programs, yes, with a signed employment contract, generally from about 60 days out to 150 days before your start date. That single feature is usually the difference between a modest house and the one you actually want.
Does It Matter Whether I Am an MD or a DO?
No. Every program that names one names the other, on identical terms.
Other Degrees We Cover
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