Assisted Living Feasibility Study in Texas

Texas writes bigger assisted living loans

Texas assisted living loans run large. The median SBA approval for a home without on-site nursing is $1.1 million, 1.47x the national median for the class, and loan size is the measure that sets this cell apart: the typical Texas ticket clears our distinctness margin against both the class nationally and the state's record across every asset class, while its cancellation and charge-off rates do not. Volume is solid rather than dominant. The 166 approvals from FY2017 to FY2026, worth $266.9 million, rank 5 of 50 among states, yet the class places only 18 of 39 inside Texas, and a location quotient of 0.83x shows assisted living holding a thinner slice of Texas SBA lending than of the country's.

Program mix, lenders and counties

The middle half of loans spans $459,500 to $2.6 million, a range that usually means a building or a ground-up project sits inside the deal, not an operating purchase alone. SBA 7(a) carried 148 of the approvals against 18 under SBA 504, so most Texas assisted living deals were booked as guaranteed term loans rather than with a certified development company alongside. Franchise brands account for 6.0% of loans, which leaves the operator's own record to carry the credit. Live Oak Banking Company holds 30 of the 7(a) loans, worth $69.5 million, well clear of Third Coast Bank, Bank Five Nine and Newtek Small Business Finance, LLC at 9 apiece; Wallis Bank's 8 loans total $18.1 million. Harris County leads with 28 approvals, Collin and Fort Bend follow with 16 each, then Montgomery with 15. The pace has quickened, from 7 loans in FY2017 to 25 in FY2025 and 34 worth $54.4 million in FY2026.

Cancellations and losses that arrived late

Among Texas care homes approved over FY2017 to FY2024, at least 12.1% were cancelled once approved, rising to 14.0% when every Texas loan not yet disbursed is also counted as cancelled. Of the 56 Texas homes whose loans funded in FY2017 to FY2021, 1.8% have since been charged off, yet the share lost inside five years of approval stands at 0.00%. In other words, the Texas losses on record surfaced after the fill-up and early operating years, not during them. Both measures are floors on loans that remain open.

So a feasibility study for a Texas assisted living home must do more than prove the opening year. It has to show private-pay demand from Texas seniors in the county the home will serve, test the construction or conversion budget against a loan that typically sits near $1.1 million, and hold debt service coverage at stabilised occupancy after a realistic lease-up. Because the recorded charge-offs came late, it should also stress staffing cost and rate growth well past the fifth year. The lender's appraiser will value the home on licensed capacity and its operating income, so the study's Texas forecast has to agree with that valuation.

One coding limit shapes this page. Assisted living earns its own industry code only where no nursing is given on site, and memory care has none; a Texas home that provides nursing care is counted with skilled nursing or continuing care retirement communities instead, so it does not appear in these figures.