The question is not really whether you can buy during residency. A physician loan usually makes that possible. The question is how long you will be in that city. Buying and selling a house costs roughly 8% to 15% of the purchase price in round-trip transaction costs, and at current appreciation rates it takes several years to earn that back.
A five-year residency in a city you like is a different decision than a three-year program you are leaving the week it ends. This page gives you the math so you can tell which one you are in.
The Break-Even Math, Plainly
Two sets of costs bracket the deal.
Buying costs 2% to 5% of the purchase price in closing costs (Freddie Mac, February 2026). Selling commonly costs 6% to 10% between agent commissions and seller-side closing fees.
Call it 10% round trip on a good day. On a $400,000 house that is about $40,000 you need appreciation and principal paydown to cover before you are even.
Existing home prices rose 2.0% year over year as of July 2026 (NAR, August 11, 2026). At that pace, appreciation alone takes about five years to cover a 10% round trip. Principal paydown helps, though in the early years of a mortgage most of your payment is interest.
The rough rule that falls out of this: if you will be there fewer than three years, buying is usually a bet rather than a plan. Four to five years or more and the math generally works.
What Makes Buying During Residency Work
- A long program. Surgical residencies, five to seven years, change the math completely.
- You plan to stay. If you expect to do fellowship or take an attending job in the same city, you may not have to sell at all.
- Rent is high relative to buying. In some markets a mortgage payment genuinely undercuts rent on comparable space.
- You have a partner with stable local income. That changes both the affordability and the flexibility.
- A house you would rent out. If you would be comfortable becoming a landlord, leaving town is less forced.
What Makes It Go Wrong
- A three-year program and no plan to stay. This is the most common version of the mistake.
- Zero down plus a flat market. With no equity, even a small dip means bringing cash to closing to sell.
- Buying at the top of the approval. Residency is demanding enough without a payment that hurts.
- No money left in the bank after closing. A furnace does not care that you are on nights.
- Underestimating maintenance. Budget around 1% of the home value per year, and understand you will also be the one waiting for the plumber.
That last one is worth naming honestly. Residency is one of the busiest periods of a person’s life. Home ownership adds a job. It is manageable, and plenty of residents do it happily, but it is not free.
The Match Problem
If you are applying to fellowship, you may not know where you are going until months before you go. Owning a house makes that harder in a specific way: you cannot easily list it before you know, and once you know you may have very little time.
Two things help. First, buy something that would rent easily, which usually means a normal house in a normal neighborhood rather than something unusual. Second, keep enough reserves to carry two housing payments for a few months if the sale is slow.
More on qualifying while still in training, including what happens when fellowship moves you, in loans for residents and fellows.
What a Physician Loan Actually Changes
It changes access, not affordability. Worth being clear about the difference.
What it does give you is real. You can often close before your first paycheck on a signed employment contract and a letter from the employer, with published windows commonly running 90 or more days before residency begins. That is what makes it possible to move in before orientation.
You can often skip the down payment, and skip mortgage insurance, which on a conventional loan runs roughly 0.46% to 1.50% of the loan per year (Urban Institute, May 2026). And your medical school debt may be treated far more gently, with some programs publishing that loans deferred well past closing are not counted in the debt-to-income ratio at all.
What it does not do is make a $65,000 salary into a $200,000 salary, or shorten a three-year program. Approval is not the same as a good idea. See how much house a doctor can afford for the affordability side.
Comparing Rent and Buying Correctly
Most rent-versus-buy comparisons are wrong because they compare rent to principal and interest only. Compare rent to the full cost of owning:
- Principal and interest
- Property taxes
- Homeowners insurance
- HOA dues if applicable
- Maintenance at roughly 1% of value per year
- The round-trip transaction costs, divided by the number of years you will be there
That last line is the one everyone leaves out, and on a short stay it dominates everything else. Forty thousand dollars of transaction costs spread over three years is more than $1,100 a month. Spread over eight years it is under $420.
Where Rates Fit Into This
Rates matter less to this decision than your timeline does. A point of rate changes the payment. Selling after two years changes whether you lose money.
If you want the current market average before you run your own numbers, the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey publishes it weekly.
Why no one publishes a physician loan rate, and what actually moves yours, is explained in how doctor loan pricing works.
A Simple Way to Decide
Answer these four honestly and the decision usually makes itself:
- How many years will I realistically be in this city?
- If I had to sell in a flat market, could I cover the transaction costs?
- Would I be comfortable renting this house out if I had to leave?
- Is the payment under about 28% of my gross income?
Four yeses and buying looks sound. Two or fewer and renting through training is a perfectly good outcome, not a failure. Plenty of physicians rent through residency and buy their first house as an attending with a real salary and real savings, and they are not behind.
If You Decide to Move Forward
The next question is which lender fits your degree, your training stage and your state. Tell us your situation and we will match you with one whose published terms actually work for you. About two minutes, no cost.
Related: how physician mortgage loans work, how student loans are counted, and what the zero down tier covers.
Last verified September 9, 2026. Rates and home price data change. We recheck this page monthly.
Step by step from here: the first-time buyer guide for physicians.