Physician’s Loan in Massachusetts for New Residents – What you need to know

Physician Loan Massachusetts: What I Tell Medical Residents Before They Do Anything Else

Every March, I get a version of the same phone call.

It’s a fourth-year medical student, sometimes their parent, sometimes both of them on the line at once. They just matched. They know they’re coming to Massachusetts — maybe MGH, maybe Beverly, maybe one of the Salem or Danvers programs — and someone told them there’s a special mortgage for doctors.

They want to know if it’s real, and if it’s worth it.

The honest answer is: sometimes yes, sometimes no, and the details are things most lenders won’t bother walking you through. So let’s walk through them now.

What Is This Program, Actually?

The medical professional loan is a real mortgage program, not a marketing gimmick. It’s a specialized product we’re able to offer through our lender network at GoldCoast Mortgage. Here’s what it does that a standard mortgage doesn’t:

• No PMI, even with less than 20% down
• Up to 100% financing (no down payment) if your FICO score is 720 or above
• Up to 95% financing with a 680 FICO
• Loan amounts up to $2,000,000
• Student loans in deferment or forbearance may be excluded from your debt-to-income ratio — but only under specific conditions I’ll get to in a moment
• You can qualify using income from a signed employment contract, before you’ve cashed a single paycheck

That last piece is what makes this program genuinely useful for residents who’ve just matched — and I want to make that concrete for a moment, because I don’t think most people fully appreciate what it means.

If you just matched to Salem Hospital — part of the Mass General Brigham network — or to Beverly Hospital, or to one of the Boston programs at Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, or Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, you could be buying a home on the North Shore before your first day of work. Not signing a month-to-month lease, not scrambling in June — owning.

Here’s what that looks like in today’s market — and how it compares to what you’d pay renting in Boston.

What You’re Paying to Rent Right Now

If you match to a Boston hospital and rent near the hospital, a 2-bedroom apartment in the city runs $3,400–$4,300/month depending on the neighborhood — and that’s before utilities, parking, and renters insurance. That’s real money leaving your pocket every month with nothing to show for it at the end of the year.

Now here’s what owning looks like on the North Shore for almost the same monthly number.

I’ve helped residents close on a home in June, weeks before their July 1 start date. It takes planning — but it’s very doable.

March 20 Is the Starting Gun

If you don’t know the date, now you do: Match Day is March 20, run by the National Resident Matching Program. That’s the day you find out where you’ll be training.

For the ones matching to Massachusetts programs, that’s also the day I’d encourage them to pick up the phone. Not because there’s any urgency pressure — I genuinely dislike that kind of thing — but because the timeline is tighter than most people realize.

You match in March. You start July 1. Closing a mortgage takes 45 to 60 days at minimum. Which means if you want to close before you start, you need to be moving by late April or early May at the latest.

I’ve seen residents wait until June because things were busy, then scramble to find an apartment because the mortgage couldn’t close in time. I’ve also seen residents who called in March, had a pre-approval in hand by April, and were in their own place before orientation week. The difference is just starting the conversation early. And for what it’s worth — getting pre-approved doesn’t hurt your credit score the way many people assume it does.

The Student Loan Question — Here’s the Real Answer

This is usually the first thing residents ask about, and for good reason. Many of you are carrying $200,000, $300,000, even $400,000 in student loan debt. Under standard mortgage rules, a lender might count 1% of that balance as a monthly payment in your debt-to-income calculation. On $300,000 in loans, that’s $3,000 a month in calculated “debt” — even if you’re not currently paying a dime.

That alone would make qualifying on a resident’s salary nearly impossible.

Here’s what this program does differently: if your student loans are currently in deferment, forbearance, or showing $0 because of income-based repayment, those payments can be excluded from your DTI — but only if both of these are true:

• You are currently in residency or a medical clinical fellowship
• You are qualifying based on your current residency income, not projected attending income

Both conditions have to be met. I want to be clear about that because I’ve seen residents get excited about the exclusion, then find out partway through the process their situation doesn’t actually qualify for it. We figure all of this out before we ever start an application.

Now the Part Most Lenders Skip

I’m going to tell you something about this program that you won’t read on most mortgage websites, because most mortgage websites are trying to sell you something.

Because there’s no PMI, the lender builds a rate premium into the loan to account for the added risk of a low-down-payment loan without insurance coverage. It’s the same basic concept as Lender-Paid Mortgage Insurance (LPMI) on a conventional loan: instead of paying PMI as a separate monthly fee, you absorb it into a slightly higher rate.

The problem — and this is important — is that conventional PMI eventually goes away. Once you’ve built up 20% equity in your home, you can drop the PMI payment. The higher rate on a physician loan doesn’t drop off on its own. It stays until you refinance.

I had a client a few years back — an attending who’d taken out a physician loan during residency at a North Shore hospital. Good program for him at the time. He didn’t have much saved, the student loan exclusion was what made him qualify, and it got him into a great condo in Beverly before his start date. But by the time he was three years into his attending salary, carrying that above-market rate was costing him real money. We refinanced him into a conventional loan and his monthly payment dropped meaningfully.

That’s the right arc for a lot of residents: physician loan to get in the door, refinance to conventional once you’re settled as an attending. The math usually works, especially in Massachusetts where home values have consistently risen over time. But go in with your eyes open. White Coat Investor has covered this tradeoff extensively from a physician finance perspective — it’s worth reading alongside this.

When It Makes Sense — and When It Doesn’t

Here’s how I actually think through this with residents.

The physician loan often makes sense when:

• You don’t have much saved and can’t get to even 5% down without draining your emergency fund. The program lets you get in with minimal cash upfront while keeping a financial cushion behind you.
• Your student loan balance is high enough that the 1% rule would make you ineligible under standard guidelines — but the exclusion applies to your situation.
• You’re in a multi-year residency in Massachusetts and plan to stay in the area after training. Buying during residency and refinancing as an attending can be a smart long-term play. If you’re weighing whether to buy at all, our rent vs. buy analysis for Massachusetts is a good starting point.
• You’re a couple with one partner in residency and one with stable income. The combined picture often works well.

A conventional loan is often the better choice when:

• You’ve saved enough to put 10% or more down — especially 20%, which eliminates PMI entirely and gets you a clean, lower-rate conventional loan.
• You’re in a one-year fellowship and almost certain to move when it ends. Buying and selling within two years rarely pencils out once you factor in closing costs on both ends. White Coat Investor’s perspective on residents and homebuying is worth reading on this point — they tend to be skeptical of buying during short residencies, and in many cases they’re right.
• A family member can contribute a meaningful gift toward the down payment. A 20% down conventional loan with a gift is almost always the stronger long-term choice.

I’m not trying to talk you out of the physician loan. I’m trying to make sure you choose it for the right reasons — not just because someone told you it was the doctor’s mortgage and left it at that. Whether to buy now or wait is a question worth working through carefully, and we’re happy to do that with you.

What the Numbers Actually Look Like Side by Side

Same $499,000 Salem condo purchase, 5% down — physician loan vs. conventional, using current market rates as of March 2026. Understanding how mortgage rates are set helps put both scenarios in context:

At these numbers, the two programs land nearly identical month-to-month right now. The physician loan saves you the PMI line item but costs you in rate. The conventional loan has PMI today but the PMI eventually goes away — and the lower base rate matters when you refinance down the road.

The real question isn’t which payment is lower on paper. It’s which program you actually qualify for, and which one fits your situation over the next five to seven years. That’s the conversation we have before anyone signs anything.

Who Qualifies as a Medical Resident or Fellow?

The program is open to borrowers who hold one of the following degrees and are in active practice, residency, or fellowship:

• Medical Doctor (MD)
• Doctor of Osteopathy (DO)
• Doctor of Dental Science or Surgery (DDS)
• Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD)
• Doctor of Ophthalmology (MD or DO)
• Doctor of Psychiatry (MD or DO)
• Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD)
• Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM or VMD)
• Doctor of Podiatric Medicine (DPM)
• Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA with DNAP or DNP)
• Medical residents, fellows, or interns holding one of the above degrees

One important note: the program requires a doctoral-level degree. Chiropractors, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants are not currently eligible. And just because you’re a doctor doesn’t automatically mean this is the right loan — that’s exactly what we work through together.

What You’ll Need to Start

Because this program is manually underwritten — a real person reviews your file, not an automated system — the documentation is thorough. Don’t let that intimidate you. It just means we need to be organized going in. Here’s what to pull together:

• Your medical degree and current residency or fellowship appointment documentation
• Signed employment contract or offer letter if you’re using future income to qualify
• Two months of recent bank statements
• 24 months of credit history on your report, with at least one active tradeline
• No 30-day late payments on housing in the past 12 months
• Student loan account statements, and if you’re on an income-driven plan, documentation of that payment
• If you’re a non-citizen, your unexpired visa and 24 months of U.S. employment history

One note on reserves: when future income is used to qualify, the program requires you to have enough cash set aside to cover your full monthly housing payment — principal, interest, taxes, insurance, and any HOA fees — for every month between your loan closing date and your first day of work. Those reserves are in addition to any standard minimums. Plan for this early.

One more note on credit: the minimum FICO for this program is 680. If your score is below that, we need to figure out whether there are steps to improve it before applying, or whether there’s another path that makes more sense for where you are right now.

My Honest Take for Residents in Massachusetts

I’ve been doing this a long time. I’ve worked with a lot of residents and fellows at North Shore hospitals, and I’ve seen both outcomes — the ones who bought during residency and were glad they did, and the ones for whom the timing wasn’t quite right and they had to deal with the consequences.

Here’s what I’d tell you if you were sitting across from me: if you’ve matched to Massachusetts, you plan to stay in the area for at least a few years after training, and you want to understand what’s realistic — call me. We’ll work through your actual numbers. Not hypothetical ranges, but your income, your student loan balance, your savings, and real prices in the towns you’re actually looking at.

If it makes sense, we’ll move forward together. If it doesn’t, I’ll tell you that too — and I’ll tell you what would need to change before it does.

As an independent mortgage broker, we’re not tied to any single lender or loan product. We shop multiple lenders on your behalf to find the right fit. Understanding the difference between a broker and a bank is worth a few minutes of your time before you start the process.

GoldCoast Mortgage Service, Inc.  ·  NMLS #4931  ·  Licensed in MA, NH & ME  ·  100 Cummings Center, Suite 544H, Beverly, MA 01915  ·  978-922-4446  ·  info@goldcoastmortgage.com  ·  All loans subject to credit and property approval. Program terms subject to change.