Charter School Feasibility Study in the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX Metro Area

A top-ranked area for a class that is hard to measure

Schools, including charter schools, place the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX Metro Area at 6 of 154 among metro and micro areas, a high position for any class. Within Houston's own class order, schools land at 21 of 39, yet the 1.90x location quotient shows schools weigh more in Houston's loan book than in the nation's. The median loan, $945,000, is 1.38x the nationwide median, and the 35 approvals of FY2017 to FY2026 come to $48.4 million overall.

Loan sizes, programs and where they sit

Half of the loans run from $280,000 to $1.8 million. Twenty-seven are 7(a) loans and 8 are 504 loans. Franchising accounts for 25.7% of loans, a notable share for schools. Harris County has 21 of the loans and Fort Bend County has 7.

A caution about what the class contains

Charter schools and private schools share a single industry code, and the two cannot be separated in this data. Most charter schools are nonprofit bodies, borrowers that SBA does not finance, so treat these loans as a school-sector total and not as a charter count. Houston prints no yearly series and names no lender. Cancellation and charge-off floors are also held back by Loan Analytics because the group of loans behind them is too small, and hidden does not mean zero.

Matters a study for a school project must address

The study should first define the model, since a for-profit private school, a tutoring operation and a charter-related real estate project each rely on different revenue. Enrollment is the central test: seats, tuition or per-pupil funding that can be documented, and a ramp to full capacity across several grades. The facility needs approvals for occupancy, safety and, in some cases, zoning. Staffing cost and the facility's lease or purchase terms drive the coverage of the debt payment, and a median near $945,000 gives a benchmark for building or renovation size. Appraisal is harder for a school, since a classroom building has few natural buyers; show alternative uses and what the real estate would bring if enrollment fell short.