Continuing Care Retirement Community Feasibility Study

Questions buyers ask

Who prepares a feasibility study for a continuing care retirement community loan?

Loan Analytics, working as an independent consultant, writes it, and Daniel Smith, MAI signs it. The audience is the lender's credit committee, and the program behind the loan can be conventional bank debt, USDA Business and Industry, SBA 504 or SBA 7(a). The study places the request in the record on this page, 130 7(a) loans for $102.6 million and 47 504 loans for $66.0 million from FY2017 to FY2026, and then builds the market, cost and coverage case for the specific community.

What does a lender require in a continuing care retirement community feasibility study?

A lender wants to know that the community will fill, that its contracts will pay and that the loan will be serviced through the fill-up years. In practice that means a defined market area and a count of the older households there who can afford the contract offered; the presales or deposits already signed; every competing community and pipeline project; a budget for each level of care with a fill-up reserve; staffing at the nursing level to the licensing standard; debt service coverage from opening to stabilization, with entrance-fee cash netted against refund promises; and an appraisal that divides property from business. The 7(a) charge-off floor on this page, 7.1%, is why the early years get the hardest test.

How much does a continuing care retirement community feasibility study cost?

The answer comes from the fee survey Loan Analytics published on this site in 2026, its post on SBA feasibility study cost in 2026, which records what providers publish and labels it directional. Complex SBA studies, a tier that names assisted living, multi-site concepts and phased construction, are listed at $10,000 to $25,000; one-site studies of ordinary special-purpose properties at $5,000 to $12,500; and a study prepared to USDA's requirements from $7,500 to $18,750 and up. A continuing care project that includes assisted living carries one of the features the survey places in its complex tier. Our own fee is quoted with the scope, once the community, its program and its lender are known.

How long does a continuing care retirement community feasibility study take?

There is no fixed answer, and this page does not publish one. The time depends on what the study must establish: an operating community being bought has a history to test, while a new campus that adds nursing and assisted living to independent living needs a market section and a cost review for each level of care, a fill schedule measured from opening and verification of every competing community and pipeline project. Presale and deposit evidence, the state approvals for each level of care and the lender's own review standard all add work. Tell us through the scope form when the lender expects the report; the reply sets out a timeline for that particular study.

How many SBA loans have gone to continuing care retirement communities?

From FY2017 to FY2026, 130 under 7(a) for $102.6 million and 47 under 504 for $66.0 million. The longer record on this page, measured from FY2001 because the earlier years are not measured, holds 555 7(a) loans for $404.8 million and 406 504 loans for $397.6 million. The counts are gross approvals with cancelled approvals included, and in years when SBA's files leave industry codes missing the year's figure is a floor.

Is SBA lending to continuing care communities rising or falling?

Falling, on this record. 7(a) approved 30 loans for $34.9 million in FY2017 and 20 for $5.8 million in FY2018, and from FY2019 to FY2026 it approved between 5 and 16 loans a year, with 11 for $8.5 million in FY2026. 504 approved 11 loans for $22.0 million in FY2017 and 0 in FY2026. Both programs were busier through most of FY2001 to FY2016, when 7(a) peaked at 41 loans in FY2006 and 504 at 35 in the same year. SBA lenders have approved few continuing care files lately, so the market evidence in a study carries more of the case.

What size are SBA loans to continuing care retirement communities?

Modest for the class. The 7(a) median is $350,000, with a lower quartile of $100,000 and an upper quartile of $963,075; the 504 median is $937,000, with quartiles of $303,000 and $2.3 million. In the size bands, 46 loans under 7(a) sit in the smallest band and 15 in the fifth, which holds $48.7 million, more than any other 7(a) band; under 504, 13 loans and $38.8 million sit in the fifth band and 1 loan above it. The medians describe operators and single buildings rather than full campuses, which is why the study has to show the lender which part of this distribution the project resembles.

Which states have the most SBA continuing care loans?

By count, California and Minnesota with 15 each, then Florida and Texas with 14, Pennsylvania with 10, Michigan and Wisconsin with 9 and Idaho with 8, all from FY2017 to FY2026. By dollars, Florida leads with $27.0 million, followed by Wisconsin at $17.4 million, California at $17.3 million and Texas at $16.6 million. No state reaches the 30 loans a state median or floor needs, so every state is read against the national figures.

Can I get a continuing care feasibility study in a state with few or no SBA loans in this record?

Yes. Loan Analytics prepares continuing care studies for projects in every state, and the thinner the state's row, the more the study has to carry. Nebraska, Nevada and South Carolina each show 1 loan on this page, with no dollar figure because fewer than five loans stand behind the row, and New York, Virginia and Tennessee have no row; that is not a count of zero, since some loans sit outside the printed state rows. In those states the study lines the request up with the national quartiles and floors, then assembles the local evidence from the market area itself.

What is the charge-off rate on SBA continuing care loans?

Under 7(a), no less than 7.1% of the continuing care loans that went out in FY2017 through FY2021 have since been charged off, and 5.7% within 5 years. Both are floors. For 504 no rate is reported, since its cohort is below 30 loans, and the absence is not a zero. A lender will read the 7(a) floor as a reason to test the early years, and our study runs coverage from opening through stabilization, and again on a downside case, before it reaches a conclusion.

How often are SBA continuing care loans cancelled after approval?

Of the approvals dated FY2017 through FY2024, cancellation took at least 12.7% under 7(a) and 15.6% under 504, and both are floors. The table does not record why. For a sponsor, the point is that approval and funding are separate events: market, cost and appraisal questions that surface after the credit decision can still stop the deal, and a study finished before approval puts the answers in the lender's file first.

Which SBA program, 7(a) or 504, suits a continuing care project?

The choice rests with the lender and the project, and this page does not set program rules. What the record shows is scale and recency. 504 loans in this class run larger, with a $937,000 median against $350,000 under 7(a), and 504 has carried nearly as many dollars over the long record, $397.6 million against $404.8 million. But 504 activity has thinned to 1 loan in FY2023, 6 in FY2024, 2 in FY2025 and 0 in FY2026, while 7(a) approved 11 in FY2026. A study states which program the loan uses and places the amount on that program's quartiles.

Are SBA continuing care loans good comparables for a full campus?

Rarely, and a study should say so. The medians, $350,000 under 7(a) and $937,000 under 504, describe operators and single buildings. The class code has blind spots: independent living has no code of its own, so a community offering only independent living cannot be found in these files, and the code that does apply also covers assisted living facilities with nursing care on the premises. Bond-financed and bank-financed communities never enter SBA files. The SBA record gives the lender scale and floors; the comparables for a campus come from the study's survey of competing communities.

Why are some years and cells on this page withheld or not measured?

Each blank has its own cause. FY1991 to FY2000 are not measured because SBA's files place too few loans in an industry code in those years to count this class. Within the measured years, the 7(a) dollars for FY2020, FY2023 and FY2025 are withheld, and the 504 rows for those years show fewer than 5 loans with no dollar total. A withheld cell carries no number on this page and is not a zero. State medians and floors are absent because no state reaches the 30 loans a rate needs.

Does an entrance-fee community need a different feasibility study from a rental one?

The questions change, though the SBA data does not separate the two. An entrance-fee community has to show buyers able to fund the fee, deposits that hold through construction, and coverage that counts fee receipts only after the refunds those contracts promise; a rental community is tested on the affordability of the monthly fee and the pace of move-ins. A blend needs both tests. In each case the lender reads the result against the 7.1% floor on 7(a) charge-offs in this class, so the fill years carry the weight.

Which lenders make SBA loans to continuing care retirement communities?

This page ranks the class by year, state, program and loan size; it carries no lender table, so it names no lender. The record still says something about where the lending happens: from FY2017 to FY2026, 7(a) lenders approved 130 continuing care loans against 47 under 504, and in FY2026 7(a) approved 11 while 504 approved 0. The SBA 7(a) and SBA 504 pages for this class on this site name the lenders their tables hold. Our study is written to be read by whichever lender the sponsor chooses.

Why does a lender want a feasibility study as well as an appraisal for a continuing care community?

Because the two reports answer different questions. The appraisal sets a value on the property and, for a continuing care community, splits the real estate from the business. The feasibility study asks whether the business will work: whether enough qualified households live in the market area, whether the contract type fits them, how fast units fill against competing communities, what each level of care costs to build and staff, and whether cash covers debt service from opening through stabilization. The lender needs both, and the 7(a) floors on this page, 12.7% cancelled and 7.1% charged off, are the backdrop against which it reads the study's answer.

Does Loan Analytics prepare feasibility studies for buying an existing continuing care community?

Yes, and an acquisition study asks different questions from a new build. It tests the occupancy and fill history the buyer inherits, the resident contracts in force and any refund obligations attached to them, staffing and licensure at each level of care, and whether the purchase leaves debt service covered on the existing operation before any expansion. It then places the purchase loan on this page's quartiles, a 7(a) median of $350,000 and a 504 median of $937,000, so the lender sees at once how the request compares with the class.

How is a continuing care study different from an assisted living study?

This class's SBA code also takes in assisted living with on-premises nursing, so the two overlap in the data, but a continuing care study carries more. It has to test demand for independent living, which has no SBA code at all, alongside the care levels; the contract structure, with entrance fees and refund promises where they apply; the movement of residents between levels as their needs change; and a campus budget in which each level of care has its own cost and staffing. The loan sizes on this page, with the 504 fifth band holding 13 loans and $38.8 million, show the scale some of these projects reach.

What information does Loan Analytics need to scope a continuing care study?

The site address or market; the levels of care and unit counts for independent living, assisted living, memory care and nursing; the contract type and fee levels; any presales or deposits; whether it is a ground-up build, an addition or a purchase; the operator's experience; the loan amount, program and lender; and the lender's closing calendar. With that we can tell you where the loan sits on this page's quartiles, which bands and floors the lender will compare it with, and what the study must establish.