Finishing Residency, Moving for the Job. Rent First, or Buy Now?
You are about to sign a contract in a city you might leave in three years. Everyone in your life is going to say the same four words: rent first, then see. Here is the honest way to run that math.
First, a Question, Not a Pitch
Are you about to finish residency or fellowship? Or did the contract already land and the start date is doing the deciding for you? I ask because this post is for exactly one person: the physician who is moving anyway. Not the one wondering whether to buy someday. The one who has to live somewhere in a new city by a date on a piece of paper. That is a different problem from the generic buy versus rent debate, and it deserves its own math.
I spent thirty years in real estate and mortgage, including time at one of the largest banks in the United States, and the rent first advice came out of my own mouth plenty of times. It is not wrong. It is just incomplete, and the part it leaves out is the part that costs you.
What Rent Really Costs on a Short Stay
Rent is honest money. You pay it, you get a roof, the transaction ends every month. The trap is that a short stay makes rent feel cheap when it is only feeling temporary. Three years of attending-level rent is a real number. Write it down. Every dollar of it buys exactly one thing: the option to leave without selling anything.
That option has value. I am not going to pretend it does not. If the job might not work out, if a fellowship match is still pending, if you would honestly rather not own anything for a while, the flexibility is worth the rent. What I want you to stop doing is treating the flexibility as free. It is a purchase, and you should buy it on purpose, not by default.
What a Round Trip on a House Really Costs
Now the other side, and I will be just as blunt. Owning for three years is not three years of “building equity” the way the brochure says. In the early years most of a mortgage payment is interest, not principal. Add property taxes, insurance, and the maintenance a landlord used to absorb. Then add the part nobody puts on the brochure: it costs money to buy and it costs more to sell. Commissions, transfer taxes, closing costs on both ends. The commonly cited round-trip figure runs several percent of the home's price, and on a physician-sized home that is a serious number.
So the honest question is not “is buying better than renting.” It is narrower and more useful than that:
Over the years you will actually be there, does owning cost less than renting after you pay the round trip? Three numbers decide it, and none of them is the rate.
The Three Numbers That Decide It
1. Rent-to-price in that city, not in general
In some markets a home rents for a lot relative to what it costs to buy. In others, rent is cheap next to prices. The same physician, the same contract, the same three years can point to buy in one city and rent in the next. Run it on the actual house and the actual rent, not on a national headline.
2. How long you will really stay
Physicians tell me three years and stay seven. They also tell me forever and leave in eighteen months. Be honest with yourself before you are honest with a lender. The longer the real stay, the more the round-trip cost gets spread out, and the more the math tilts toward owning.
3. What a physician loan lets you keep in your pocket
Many physician loan programs allow a low or no down payment, skip mortgage insurance, and can count a signed employment contract as income before the first paycheck lands. Programs vary and every lender is different, so ask. But the point stands: if you can buy without draining reserves you just spent a decade not having, the comparison changes.
The Part About Taxes, Said Carefully
You will hear that owning comes with a tax write-off. Sometimes it does. Mortgage interest and property taxes may be deductible for some borrowers, and whether that helps you depends on whether you itemize, on limits that change, and on your whole return, not just the house. I am not your tax advisor and this is not tax advice. Talk to your CPA before you let a deduction decide a purchase. If it turns out to help, treat it as a bonus on a decision that already worked without it.
Rent First, Then Buy, Is Also a Bet
Here is the piece the rent first advice skips. If you rent for a year and then buy, you move twice, you pay two sets of deposits and setup costs, and you buy into whatever that market looks like in year two, competing with everyone else who also waited. Nobody knows what prices or rates do next year, me included, and I will not pretend otherwise. But waiting is not a neutral position. It is a bet with its own price tag, and it should be weighed like one.
The job is genuinely uncertain. A fellowship or a second match is still open. Reserves are thin. Rent in that city is cheap next to prices. Or you simply do not want to own yet, which is a fine reason as long as you know what it costs.
The contract is signed and the stay is likely three years or more. Rent runs high relative to prices there. A physician program lets you buy without emptying reserves. And the payment works at today's numbers, for as long as you plan to own, with no refinance assumed.
That last line is the house rule and it does not bend: you buy only if the payment works at today's rate for as long as you plan to own. A lower rate later is a maybe on a schedule nobody controls. If the plan needs it, it is not a plan.
Who Should Not Buy Right Now
If you cannot name your start date, if the offer is verbal, if your reserves after closing would be zero, or if you would be counting on a refinance or a raise to make the payment comfortable, rent. Say it out loud to whoever is pushing you. The right answer for that situation is a lease, and anyone telling you otherwise is selling.
What This Means for Your Number
I cannot answer that in a post, because it turns on your city, your rent, your real timeline, and what a physician program does with your specific contract and your specific debt. Anyone handing a relocating doctor a blanket “buy” or “rent” has not looked at your numbers. Get them looked at.
Your Number. 60 Seconds. No Call.
Moving for the job? Ask Rosie whether the math says rent or buy.
Free. No credit pull. Rosie runs your city, your rent, and your real timeline against today's market and gives you a straight verdict. She will tell you to rent if that is the honest answer. That is the whole point.
Ask Rosie, Instant AnswerPrefer a human? Book a call with Sean, no pitch, just your numbers.
And if the saying “marry the house, date the rate” is rattling around in your head, I took that one apart honestly here. The general buy versus rent math, for anyone who is not on a start-date clock, lives at Buy vs. Rent.
Related: Marry the House, Date the Rate, the Prenup · Rates Hit 6.87%. Why Smart Money Is Buying Anyway. · Buy vs. Rent · Physician Mortgages and Complex Income
Sean T. Shallis · Private Wealth Mortgage Strategist · NMLS #2362814. This post reflects the author's personal opinion as of the publication date and is for educational purposes only. It is not tax, legal, or investment advice; consult your CPA or tax advisor about your own situation. Descriptions of physician loan programs are general; program terms, availability, and eligibility vary by lender and by borrower. References to transaction costs are commonly cited industry ranges, not quotes. Statements about where rates or home prices may go are forward-looking opinion, not predictions you should rely on; rates and prices can rise or fall. A future refinance is not promised, guaranteed, or a condition of any loan. Nothing here is a quoted rate, an offer of credit, or a guarantee of savings, approval, or program eligibility. Not a commitment to lend. All loans subject to credit approval. Contact Sean for a personalized analysis of your specific situation. Equal Housing Lender.