continue renting or buy?

My spouse and I are resident physicians. He is two years from finishing his fellowship. He’s in an high demand field and his peers have tended to sign contracts with stipends or large one-time bonuses about a year before finishing. My field is also in high demand, and working from home is an option. We’re considering whether we should buy now or wait 1.5 years and build. Once we move, we want to stay put for the next 7-10 years.

Pros:

1. The price. It has come down quite a bit from the initial asking, and is reasonable for the zip code per square foot. In an established community, it would be north of $1 mm. In this same community, a bare bones version of this house would be about $15K less than this upgraded version.

2. The home. It is the perfect floor plan and a beautifully designed home. It is what we’d build if we waited, minus some minor preferences like paint colors.

3. The location. It is very close to family and the neighborhood itself is really beautiful.

Cons.

1. The price. We’re doing a physician loan and will have $0 down and $0 pmi. The home is $640K, 5.5% interest, 3.1% property tax, $1,700 homeowners, and $1400 HOA. That puts us at PITIA $5,545, which is 51% of our net take home pay. After taking out our bills + expected expenses (food, utilities, shopping, gifts, car maintenance, etc) and a small amount of savings, we’re left with $1,300 per month. Admittedly, we could spend less on things like food, but convenience is worth more to us right now.

2. The home. The sale has fallen through twice due to the buyers being unable to secure financing. We think it’s not apppraising although the last offer was significantly more.

3. The location. The master planned community is all potential right now. It’s surrounded by farm land. No homes are selling. If we waited to build, we’d probably try to find a lot somewhere else to build on, though it would be quite a bit more expensive to do that (like $200K more for the land). Major improvements to this community would probably take 4-6 years.

We know we aren’t far out from having a significant jump in our income which will allow us to buildthis home in an established area at whatever premium there is, but we can’t help but feel like buying at this low price before the community develops is a good long term strategy, even if the payoff is 10 years down the road. In about two years time, this home will be more than comfortable. But until my husband signs a contract, we’d have to ask family for money if something very expensive broke (>$15K).