Start here: finding a place to live on your next travel contract
Travel Therapy Housing is for travel therapists heading to a new city, and the place to begin is the city guide for your next assignment, then the four guides below on budgeting, leases and deposits. The guides are written, while the rent figures on the city guides are HUD Fair Market Rents for FY2027, rendered from HUD’s own data file and never typed by hand.
Who is this site for?
The site is for travel PTs, OTs, SLPs and assistants who need a place to live for the length of a contract: first-time travelers deciding between the housing stipend and agency housing, and experienced travelers pricing a new city. It covers where to find furnished housing, how a lease or booking fits a contract that can end early, and how to avoid losing money on a deposit or a scam listing.
It is not a listing site: it does not rent, book or vet places for you. It shows you how to search, what to ask a landlord or host, and how to read the published figures for your city.
Where should you start?
- City housing guides: the neighborhoods to start a search in, where to look for furnished housing, how to think about the stipend there and how people get around, city by city.
- HUD Fair Market Rent or the GSA lodging rate: a recent guide to which figure to budget from, and why neither one is your rent.
- Furnished Finder, Airbnb or extended stay: what to price for each, and the deposit and lease-break terms that matter when a contract ends early.
- A furnished rental or the stipend: the questions that decide it, starting with whether you can take the stipend untaxed at all.
- Getting your security deposit back: a recent guide to documenting the unit, leaving a forwarding address and the deadlines state law gives a landlord, quoted from the Texas, California, Washington and Florida statutes.
The housing worksheet then turns a listing into one answer: whether the stipend covers it, and by how much a week.
What on this site comes from data, and what is written?
The guides are written, and they carry no typed rent or stipend figures. Every rent figure on the site is rendered from a data file:
- The city cards and city guides show HUD’s Fair Market Rents for FY2027, read from the HUD USER Fair Market Rents data, with the one-bedroom and two-bedroom figures for the area. HUD defines them as estimates of gross rents for standard quality units, so read them as a reference for ordinary long-lease rents nearby, not as the price of a furnished place for a contract.
- Each city guide’s short FAQ is built from those same HUD figures, so the answer and the card cannot disagree.
- The introduction to the city guides is built from the guides themselves, so it names the neighborhoods each guide actually covers.
The home page FAQ is written, with links to IRS Publication 463, the GSA and HUD. Stipend ceilings are not typed anywhere on the site: for the lodging rate in your contract county, use the GSA per diem rates for the federal fiscal year your contract falls in.
How do you reach a recruiter?
The city guides and the housing guides end with a short form asking for your name, your email and your discipline, sent with the Find my next contract button. If you would rather have contracts come to you, the job alerts page emails new contracts in your discipline, daily or weekly, in one state or anywhere.
ProTherapy Staffing, which publishes this site, is owned and run by licensed physical therapists.
If you want a contract in the city you are pricing, tell a ProTherapy recruiter where you would like to go: Find my next contract.
What should you check before you commit to a place?
Make sure the contract is confirmed before you sign a lease, and prefer month-to-month terms or an early-exit clause in case it is cancelled. Photograph the unit on move-in day and email the photos to the landlord, so the record carries a date.
Run the rent against the stipend you would otherwise take on the worksheet, and do not send a deposit for a place you have not seen or verified. If a listing pushes you to pay before you can see it, treat that as a warning sign.
Frequently asked questions
Why does the site show HUD rents instead of what furnished places cost?
Because HUD publishes a sourced figure for every area and furnished listings do not. The Fair Market Rent is a reference for ordinary long-lease rents nearby; a furnished place for a contract can cost a different amount, so price real listings before you decide.
Should I take the housing stipend or agency housing on my first contract?
It depends on how much risk you can carry. Taking the stipend means you hold the lease if the contract ends early, while agency housing moves that risk to the agency at the cost of choice. The furnished rental guide walks through the questions in order.
Where do I find the housing stipend ceiling for my contract?
On the GSA per diem rates pages: look up the county where you will sleep, for the federal fiscal year your contract falls in. The lodging rate there is the nightly ceiling on a tax-free lodging allowance.
Sources
- HUD USER, Fair Market Rents (FY 2027 data), read October 25, 2026
- GSA, Per diem rates, read October 25, 2026
- IRS Publication 463 (2025), Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses, read October 25, 2026