The Georgia Physician Loan Guide
Program and regulatory figures verified October 7, 2026. Details change; confirm your scenario with us.
Everything on this site in one place, in the order a Georgia physician needs it.
What order should I do this in?
1. Work out which credit, if any, applies to you. The hinge is whether you qualified on or before 15 May 2024, and whether your county is one of the 118. Which credit · The counties.
2. Understand that it is a credit, not cash. No carryover, capped at your tax liability, $25,000 maximum. Why that matters.
3. Confirm capacity with DOR. Credit 154's $2 million annual aggregate is first come, first served.
4. Then pick the loan, independently. The credit does not affect your mortgage either way. Physician loan or conventional.
The two credits
| Rural Physicians Credit | Rural Health Care Professional Credit | |
|---|---|---|
| Code / statute | 207 — O.C.G.A. §48-7-29 | 154 — §48-7-29.26 |
| Amount | $5,000/yr, max 5 yrs ($25,000) | $5,000/yr, max 5 yrs ($25,000) |
| Who | ★ Qualified on or before 15 May 2024 | ★ The route after that date |
| Dentists | No | ★ Yes |
| Rural hospital admitting | ★ Required (≤100 beds) | ★ Not stated |
| Residence | Rural county; from 2003 may reside contiguous | Practise and reside rural |
| Annual cap | None published | ★★ $2m, first come first served |
| Specialties | Family practice, OB/GYN, pediatrics, internal medicine, general surgery | Same + dentistry |
| Carryover / liability ceiling | None / yes | None / yes |
| Both in one year? | ★ Not permitted | |
The county test
| Basis | Test | Counties |
|---|---|---|
| ★ Current — 1 Jan 2024, HB 82 | Population under 50,000 (2020 census), military personnel and dependents excluded where a base sits in the county | ★★ 118 |
| 2020 census | Under 65 people per square mile | 76 |
| 2010 census | Under 65 per square mile | 79 |
| 2000 census | Under 65 per square mile | 89 |
★ 42 counties were added and none removed. 118 of Georgia's 159 is about three quarters of the state. Regulation 560-7-8-.20 carries the transition rules. All 118, with the additions marked.
★★ Georgia versus its neighbours
| Georgia | North Carolina | Ohio | Pennsylvania | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mechanism | ★ Tax credit | Loan repayment | Loan repayment | Loan repayment |
| Maximum | $25,000 | $100,000 | $120,000 | $80,000 |
| Hard constraint | ★ $2m/yr cap, first served | PCPI needs a physician-owned practice | ★ 3× breach penalty | ★ window closed |
| Does your student debt matter? | ★ No | Yes — routes the programme | Yes — default may disqualify | Yes — refinancing can disqualify |
| General surgery eligible? | ★ Yes | Critical access hospitals only | No | No |
| Service-commitment penalty | ★ None published | Not in these terms | ★ 3× or $7,500/month | Not in these terms |
★ Smallest amount, loosest conditions, no lock-in. That is a real trade rather than simply a worse deal. The mechanism difference.
The market
Atlanta $377,428 (−1.6%) and Savannah $342,336 (−2.6%) both fell. 5 of 37 metros fell; only 4 sit above the $368,697 benchmark. Meanwhile Moultrie +7.0%, Jesup +6.6%, Americus +6.4% at $144,609.
★ The credit geography and the growth geography overlap. All 37 metros.
By region: Atlanta · Augusta and Macon · South Georgia.
Closing costs
Transfer tax $1 for the first $1,000 plus 10¢ per additional $100 = 0.1%, and DOR says the seller is liable while noting contracts frequently shift it to the buyer. $400 on a $400,000 purchase, against Philadelphia's $18,312.
★ We publish no intangible recording tax rate, because we have not verified one at a primary source. The detail.
What the physician loan does
- Up to 100% financing with no PMI; five-percent-down options; to $2M.
- Student debt on your documented income-driven payment, not 1% of balance (Fannie Mae B3-6-05) or 0.5% (HUD 4000.1).
- Closing up to 150 days before your start date on a signed contract, against the 90 agency rules allow.
- Eligible degrees: MD, DO, DDS, DMD, DPM, OD, PharmD, DVM, CRNA, plus residents and fellows. No specialty or county restriction.
- Asset depletion as supplemental income only, at a 3% rate of return, assets in a US account.
Lender portfolio programme, not agency financing. Who qualifies.
Loan limits
$832,750 in all 159 counties, no high-cost exception. Atlanta leaves roughly $455,322 of headroom. Detail.
How was this verified?
Every figure carries the date 2026-10-06. Both credits were read from the Department of Revenue's own pages; the county lists from DOR's published list page; the transfer tax from DOR's transfer tax page citing O.C.G.A. 48-6-1 to 48-6-10; loan limits from the FHFA 2026 county file; market data from Zillow Research to 31 August 2026.
★ Every URL was fetched as GPTBot and ClaudeBot before use. DOR's individual credit pages return 200 while DOR's tax-credit index returns 403, so this site links the specific pages. Five guessed URLs 404'd during research and were discarded rather than published. What we could not verify, and said so.
Frequently asked questions
Does Georgia have a physician loan repayment program?
No. Georgia offers a state income tax credit instead: $5,000 a year for not more than five years, so $25,000 at most. Pennsylvania, Ohio and North Carolina all run loan repayment programmes that pay against a student loan balance; Georgia reduces state income tax owed. Verified against the Georgia Department of Revenue 2026-10-06.Which Georgia rural credit should I claim?
It depends chiefly on when you qualified. Credit 207, the Rural Physicians Credit, applies to a person who qualified on or before 15 May 2024. Credit 154, the Rural Health Care Professional Credit, is the route after that date, covers dentists as well as physicians, states no rural-hospital admitting requirement, and is capped at $2 million a year first come first served. The two cannot be claimed in the same taxable year.What should a physician know before buying in Georgia?
That the state incentive is a capped tax credit rather than loan repayment, that the version most material describes closed to new qualifiers on 15 May 2024, that 118 of Georgia's 159 counties now qualify after House Bill 82, and that Atlanta and Savannah both lost value over the year to 31 August 2026 while south Georgia rose up to 7%.What does a Georgia physician loan offer?
Up to 100% financing with no private mortgage insurance, five-percent-down options, loan amounts to $2M, student debt counted on your documented income-driven payment rather than 1% of the balance, and closing up to 150 days before your start date on a signed employment contract. Eligible degrees include MD, DO, DDS, DMD, DPM, OD, PharmD, DVM and CRNA, plus residents and fellows.Is Georgia a good state for a physician to buy in?
On cost, yes. Only four of thirty-seven Georgia metros sit above the national benchmark typical home value of $368,697, the transfer tax is 0.1% and statutorily the seller's, and the $832,750 conforming limit applies in all 159 counties. The caution is that Atlanta and Savannah, where most Georgia physician jobs are, both lost value over the past year.Mike Certo · NMLS #260555 · Cornerstone First Mortgage NMLS #173855 · Equal Housing Lender. Educational content, not a loan commitment and not legal, tax, visa, or licensure advice. Physician-loan program terms, eligible degrees, and overlays are set by the lender and change. Georgia's rural tax credits are set by statute and administered by the Georgia Department of Revenue; the Rural Health Care Professional Credit is subject to a $2 million annual aggregate cap allowed on a first come, first served basis, neither credit carries over, and neither can exceed the taxpayer's income tax liability. Nothing here is tax advice; confirm your position with a tax professional and with the Department of Revenue. Rural county designations are set by statute and census data and change. All loans are subject to borrower and property qualification, including credit and income review.