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Just to play devils advocate.. I bought a house right outside of Detroit for $86k before starting a 5 year residency. It was recently flopped 3br 2ba believe it or not (2011). Had to drop about $3k on a sewer repair and otherwise did several DIY projects for curb appeal. Put it on the market 2 months before graduation and had several offers in 2 days. Sold for $180k. Made payments throughout residency that were 1/3 what my friends were paying for rent. Probably can’t replicate that scenario in the market today though.
I'll play devil's advocate to your devil's advocate with my own example.
Before finding out about WCI, my wife and I bought a house for 5-year residency for $189,000 in the summer of 2008. It was a 4 BD, 2.5 BR house that was 4 years old when we bought it in an area that our realtor assured us was growing and where we could expect 2-3% yearly price appreciation. In 2009, we had to pay almost $1,000 to have our water heater replaced. In 2010, we had to pay almost $4,000 to replace one of two A/C units in a two-story house (split system, critical in the Southeast where I did residency). When I was set to graduate residency in 2013, we listed the house for sale for $179,000 (so nowhere near the "2-3% yearly appreciation" we foolishly believed would happen) and only had a couple of potential buyers come through. It was listed at too high of a price, but we couldn't afford to take a loss on it at that point financially.
We then became accidental landlords. We were able to rent the house out for about $250 more than our mortgage payment for the first 2 years, but had to replace the other A/C unit for about $4,000 in 2014, and then the roof in 2015 due to a hail storm. At least that was covered by our homeowner's insurance after a $1,000 deductible. When those renters moved out, we had to pay almost $3,500 to re-sod the entire yard that they had let die due to not watering it. Our management company was bought out partway during their lease term and the ball was completely dropped on making sure that the house was being properly taken care of. We were receiving notices from our HOA almost monthly about the condition of the lawn and overgrown trees. We had to pay almost $2,000 around that same time to remove a large river birch tree at the front of our house that the initial landscapers of the house should have never planted next to the house.
Our second set of renters (just moved out) were great, but the rental market had tanked and so we were only able to pocket about $100/month above our mortgage payment on the house. We had to pay to replace a fridge (almost $1,000) and a few other smaller repairs around the house.
The house is now on the market, listed for $174,900, and we haven't had any serious interest in the house. Fortunately, we now only owe $149,000 so have some room to drop the price to get it sold since we figured out we were not meant to be long-distance landlords.
So I would tread carefully about buying a house during residency. I liked the thought above about rent being the ceiling of what you would owe for housing for a month, while a mortgage payment on a house you "own" is the floor. We are now in a position financially where we can easily cover the monthly mortgage even without renters, and things like a new fridge don't cause financial hardship, but looking back there were some tough times when we had to come up with $4,000 to buy a new A/C unit during residency on that kind of salary.
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