The U.S. Bank physician loan comes in two versions. One finances up to 90 percent of the price with no monthly mortgage insurance. The other goes to 95 percent, with the mortgage insurance paid by the lender instead of by you. Neither one goes to zero down, which is the first thing to know if you are comparing it against programs that do.
It is open to MD and DO borrowers, it will qualify you on a signed employment contract before your job starts, and it lends up to $3 million. What follows is what the program does, where it is genuinely strong, and the one piece of it that costs more than it looks.
U.S. Bank Physician Loan at a Glance
| Maximum loan amount | $3,000,000 |
| Lowest down payment | 5 percent, with lender-paid mortgage insurance |
| Down payment for no monthly mortgage insurance | 10 percent |
| Eligible degrees | MD and DO |
| Training stage | Residents and fellows with a signed contract, and physicians up to 10 years past training |
| Employment contract | Accepted to qualify before the start date |
| Gift funds | Allowed for down payment, closing costs and reserves |
The Two Financing Tiers
Most physician programs are built around how much you can borrow. This one is built around a trade between your down payment and how the mortgage insurance gets paid.
| Portfolio Plus Doctor Loan | Up to 90 percent financing. No monthly mortgage insurance. |
| Physician LPMI | Up to 95 percent financing. Mortgage insurance is paid by the lender rather than charged to you monthly. |
Mortgage insurance, usually shortened to PMI, is what an ordinary lender adds when you put down less than 20 percent. It protects the lender if you stop paying and it does nothing for you. It runs roughly 0.46 percent to 1.50 percent of the loan every year (Urban Institute), which on a $700,000 loan is $268 to $875 a month. Removing that charge is the central benefit of both tiers.
Note what the tiers are not. There is no 100 percent option here. Several physician programs will finance the entire purchase price for a borrower with the right credit score, and this one asks for at least 5 percent. If you have no down payment at all, this is not your program, and our guide to zero down physician mortgages covers the ones that are.
What Lender-Paid Mortgage Insurance Actually Means
The 95 percent tier deserves a careful read, because the words lender-paid are doing a lot of work in that phrase.
With lender-paid mortgage insurance, the bank buys the insurance policy in a single payment at closing instead of billing you month by month. You do not see a mortgage insurance line on your statement. That much is real and it is worth something.
What lenders generally do in exchange is price it into the interest rate. The premium does not disappear; it moves from a separate monthly charge into the rate you pay for the life of the loan. Two consequences follow from that, and both matter.
First, the cost is permanent. Ordinary monthly mortgage insurance comes off once you have paid the balance down to 78 percent of the original price, and you can ask for it to be removed at 80 percent. A rate that has the premium built into it does not drop when you cross those thresholds. You either refinance or you carry it for thirty years.
Second, it makes rate shopping harder, because you are no longer comparing like with like. A quote with lender-paid insurance and a quote with monthly insurance will look different in ways that have nothing to do with which is cheaper.
The way to handle it is to ask for both tiers priced on the same day and compare the total monthly payment rather than the rate, then ask what the 95 percent rate would be without the insurance built in. Our physician mortgage payment calculator will show you what the difference looks like on a specific purchase price.
Qualifying on a Signed Employment Contract
This is the feature that makes the program usable for anyone finishing training. A signed future employment contract can be used to qualify, so a resident or fellow who has accepted a position can buy before the first day of the job and before a single paycheck arrives.
The reason that matters is the size of the income jump. The AAMC puts first-year resident stipends at $68,166, rising to $89,187 by the seventh year. The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median physician wage at $275,930 as of May 2025. Qualifying on the first number and qualifying on the second buy very different houses, and the contract is what lets you use the second one.
What a contract-based approval does not do is remove the rest of the review. Your credit, your other monthly debts and your student loans all still get looked at. Our guide to buying a home on an employment contract covers what the document itself has to contain, and the guide for residents and fellows covers what a training income realistically supports.
Who Is Eligible, and Who Is Not
MD and DO. That is the list.
This is the part of the program most likely to stop a reader cold, and it is worth being blunt about it. Dentists, podiatrists, optometrists and veterinarians are not named. An unlisted degree is a decline no matter how strong the rest of your situation looks, so there is no point in building a plan around a program that does not cover your credential.
If you hold one of those degrees, other physician programs do include you, and the eligibility lists vary more than people expect. Start with who actually qualifies for a physician mortgage rather than assuming the category is closed to you.
The Ten Year Window After Training
Eligibility runs to about ten years past the completion of residency or fellowship. Inside that window you are a candidate. Past it, this particular program stops.
Ten years is the most common shape of this rule across the category, so it is not unusual. It is worth knowing that a small number of programs have no cutoff at all and at least one keeps you eligible indefinitely but asks for a larger down payment once you are far enough out. If you finished training a decade ago and have been told you are too late, that is true here and not necessarily true everywhere.
Gift Funds for Down Payment, Closing Costs and Reserves
Gift money is allowed across all three, which is more flexible than it sounds.
Down payment gifts are common and most programs permit them. Allowing gift funds for closing costs and for reserves is the less common part. Reserves are savings a lender wants to see you still holding after closing, usually expressed as a number of monthly payments, and they are a quiet reason applications stall for borrowers who put everything they had into the down payment. Being able to cover that requirement with family help rather than your own cash is a real piece of flexibility for someone coming straight out of training.
Expect the usual paperwork. A gift letter, proof of where the money came from and a clean paper trail into your account are standard, and they take longer than people plan for.
The $3 Million Ceiling
Three million is a high ceiling for this category. Most physician programs stop somewhere between $1 million and $2.5 million.
For context on what that covers, the 2026 conforming loan limit is $832,750 in most of the country and $1,249,125 in high-cost areas (FHFA). A conforming loan is one small enough to be sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac; above those limits you are in jumbo territory, where ordinary lenders get noticeably stricter about down payment and reserves. A physician program that reaches $3 million is covering purchases that would otherwise mean a jumbo application.
The ceiling is not the constraint most borrowers actually hit, though. The payment your income supports usually binds first, well before the program’s maximum does.
What the Program Does Not Publish
Three things are not stated, and guessing at them would not help you.
The minimum credit score is not published. Neither is the list of states where the program is available. Neither are rates, which are set per borrower and would be out of date on a page like this within days.
The student loan rule is the other unknown, and it is the one that moves the most money. How a lender counts a deferred or income-driven student loan payment can swing your debt-to-income ratio, which is your total monthly debts divided by your income before taxes, by hundreds or thousands of dollars a month. Our guide to how student loans are counted explains why lenders differ so widely. Ask the question directly and get the answer in writing before you make an offer.
Common Questions About the U.S. Bank Physician Loan
Does the U.S. Bank Physician Loan Require a Down Payment?
Yes. The lowest option is 5 percent, which comes with lender-paid mortgage insurance. Putting 10 percent down qualifies you for the version with no monthly mortgage insurance at all. There is no zero down option on this program.
Is There Mortgage Insurance on This Loan?
Not as a monthly charge. At 90 percent financing there is none. At 95 percent the lender pays the premium instead of billing you, though lenders generally recover that in the interest rate, so the cost usually shows up there rather than disappearing.
Can Residents and Fellows Qualify?
Yes, with a signed employment contract for a position they have accepted. The contract can be used to qualify before the job starts, which is the whole point of the feature for someone finishing training.
Which Degrees Are Eligible?
MD and DO only. Dentists, podiatrists, optometrists and veterinarians are not on this program’s list, and an unlisted degree is a decline regardless of income or credit.
How Long After Residency Can I Use It?
About ten years past the completion of residency or fellowship. That window is typical for the category, though a few programs elsewhere have no cutoff at all.
How Much Can I Borrow?
Up to $3 million, which is high for a physician program. In practice what your income supports is usually the real limit rather than the program ceiling.
Can I Use Gift Money?
Yes, for the down payment, for closing costs and for reserves. Reserves are the savings a lender wants to see you still holding after closing, and being allowed to cover them with a gift is the more unusual part of this.
Is This the Right Fit for You
It fits a specific borrower well. An MD or DO with 5 to 10 percent saved, and either a signed contract or a position within ten years of training. The $3 million ceiling and the gift-funds flexibility are genuinely useful at the top and the bottom of that range.
It fits poorly if you have nothing to put down, if your degree is not MD or DO, or if you finished training more than a decade ago. Those are not close calls, and there are programs that cover each of those situations.
Tell us your degree, your training stage, your state and your numbers, and we will point you at the lender whose rules actually fit your situation.
Mortgage insurance cost range from the Urban Institute. Conforming loan limits from the Federal Housing Finance Agency, effective 2026. Resident stipend figures from the AAMC. Median physician wage from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025. Program terms are subject to change and no rates are quoted here. Confirm all terms with the lender before you rely on them.