Every year, residents and fellows in Denver and across Colorado ask some version of the same question: can I actually buy a house right now, on a resident salary, with six figures of student loan debt and a job that ends in two years?
The answer is more often yes than most residents expect. Here is exactly how it works, what the rules actually say, and how to think about whether it makes sense for you.
The two rules that make this possible
Residents and fellows get access to two specific underwriting accommodations that do not exist on a conventional loan. Together they change the math completely.
1. Your future income counts, before you earn it
If you have a signed employment contract for a position that has not started yet, that future income can be used to qualify. This is the single most powerful feature for anyone finishing training.
The timing rules are specific. Depending on the program, your employment start date can be as much as 150 to 180 days after your loan closes. The contract needs to show your job title, your start date, and your rate of pay, and the compensation plan needs to cover at least twelve months. Only standard contingencies are allowed, meaning things like licensing, background check, and drug screening are fine, but a contract contingent on something unusual may not work.
Practically, this means a fellow finishing in June with a signed attending contract starting in August can close on a house in the spring, qualifying on the attending salary rather than the fellowship stipend.
If you are closing before your new job starts, expect to document reserves covering the full mortgage payment for each month between closing and your start date. If you close in April and start in August, that is four months of payments you need to show in accessible funds, on top of any other reserve requirement.
This is the detail that most often surprises residents. It is manageable, but it needs to be planned for rather than discovered three weeks before closing.
2. Your student loans may not count against you at all
This is the rule that does the heaviest lifting. If you are a resident or fellow qualifying on your training income, student loans that are in deferment, in forbearance, or showing a $0 payment under an income-driven repayment plan can be excluded from your debt-to-income ratio entirely.
Consider what that means in practice. Under standard conventional guidelines, a resident carrying typical medical school debt often has a substantial monthly figure counted against their ratios regardless of what they actually pay. On a resident salary, that alone disqualifies most purchases. Excluding it entirely is frequently the difference between qualifying for nothing and qualifying for a real home.
If those conditions are not met, there are still workable options, typically calculating a payment as a smaller percentage of the balance or using a documented payment from your servicer, which is more favorable than the standard conventional approach.
What you can expect to qualify for
The two accommodations above mean residents typically fall into one of two situations, and they produce very different outcomes.
| Situation | Qualifying income used | Practical result |
|---|---|---|
| Resident with signed attending contract | Future attending salary | Strongest position. Qualify on full attending income before earning it. |
| Resident mid-training, no contract yet | Current training stipend | More limited, but student loan exclusion makes modest purchases realistic. |
Finishing training in Colorado?
A 15-minute call maps your contract timing, reserve requirements, and what you can realistically qualify for.
Should you actually buy during residency?
This deserves an honest answer rather than a sales pitch, because buying is not automatically the right move.
Buying tends to make sense when your training program is three or more years and you are early in it, you are staying in Colorado after training, the monthly payment is genuinely comparable to what you would pay in rent, and you have or can build the reserves the program requires.
Renting tends to make sense when your program is short or you expect to relocate immediately after, you are not confident you will stay in the area, the payment would meaningfully strain your training income, or you have no cushion for maintenance and unexpected costs. Owning a home during residency with zero financial margin is genuinely stressful, and residency provides enough of that already.
The transaction costs of buying and selling within a couple of years frequently exceed whatever equity you build. If your realistic horizon is under three years, that math deserves a hard look before you commit.
Colorado training programs and where residents buy
Most residents and fellows in Colorado train through the University of Colorado system at the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Denver Health, Children's Hospital Colorado, or affiliated programs across the metro. That concentration means Aurora and the eastern and northern parts of the Denver metro are where residents most commonly buy, largely because the price points work on training income.
Residents at programs in Colorado Springs and Fort Collins generally find more accessible price points than their Denver counterparts, which changes the calculation meaningfully in favor of buying.
What to do first
If you are within a year of finishing training or early in a longer program, the useful first step is a conversation before you look at houses. That conversation should cover when your contract will be signed relative to when you want to close, how much you will need in reserves given that timing, what your student loan situation does to your ratios, and honestly, whether buying is the right call for your specific plans.
If you want to see how I work through these, client reviews are here, and the free homebuyer class covers the fundamentals if you would rather start there than with a one-on-one call.
Chris Cartwright is a licensed mortgage broker serving residents, fellows, physicians, and medical professionals across Colorado, Washington, Texas, California, Arizona, and Florida. He works regularly with clinicians using employment contracts to qualify before their start date.
Resident or fellow buying in Colorado?
A 15-minute call covers your contract timing, reserve requirements, and an honest read on whether buying makes sense for your situation.
Program details and eligibility requirements are subject to change. This content is for informational purposes only. All loans subject to credit approval. Equal Housing Lender.