Dental Office Feasibility Study in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH Metro Area

What SBA's own loan files show about dental office lending in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH Metro Area, and what a feasibility study for a project there has to test.

Dental office lending in Boston

Boston supplies 164 SBA loans to dentists' offices from FY2017 and FY2026, adding up to $110.0 million in gross dollars. By rank, Boston is 9 of 562 among metro and micro areas, and dentists' offices take 7 of 39 inside the area's own asset classes. The midpoint loan in Boston is $368,500, below the country's class median by 0.73x. Compared with the nation, dentists' offices fill a smaller share of Boston lending, a location quotient of 0.82x. The middle half of loans sit between $132,500 and $870,775.

Dental office programs, franchise share and lenders

Under 7(a), Live Oak Banking Company leads at 36 loans ($51.6 million); behind it come Eastern Bank (24) and Salem Five Cents Savings Bank (8). A franchise share is not printed for Boston dental offices, because Loan Analytics withholds cohorts of under 30 loans. For 504 financing, Bay Colony Development Corporation holds 18 loans. Of the 164 Boston dental office loans, 136 are 7(a) and 28 are 504. Each lender above is printed as today's holder of the loans in SBA's files; that shows a reader where the paper sits, for the record, and it is silent on how a bank lends or what it would ask of an applicant in Boston.

Place and timing for dentists' offices

Middlesex County, MA holds the most loans at 47; Essex County, MA follows with 39, and Norfolk County, MA has 26. By year, at present, FY2021 is the high mark for dental offices in Boston (23 loans, $24.5 million) and FY2022 the low (7 loans, $5.6 million).

Floors that may only move up for dental practices

Charge-offs stand at 0.00% to date across 82 disbursed Boston approvals from FY2017 to FY2021, a floor that may climb; 0.00% came inside five years of approval. Boston dental office loans from FY2017 to FY2024 print a cancellation floor of 15.9%, and a maximum of 15.9% if undisbursed loans count as called off. Boston here is a county grouping paired by name to the 2023 area list, so dental office approvals whose county cannot be placed are missing from Boston as well.

What a study of dental practices in Boston has to test

The first test is demand for dental offices in Boston: rival practices and groups, then insurance against fee-for-service. Lenders have approved 164 loans in the category, yet that count tells a borrower little about one address until area numbers are built. In the appraisal, a Boston lender will ask about a start-up's chair fill and goodwill after the sale. No study can promise an approval, but a study helps a lender and an applicant use the same SBA record for Boston. On cost, hygienist and assistant pay and price paid against collections must appear in the budget for dental practices, which can then be read beside the $132,500 to $870,775 range institutions in Boston have used. Coverage ought to be tested against a sluggish opening, because some Boston dental office loans did not go as approved.

SBA dental office loans in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH Metro Area

Loans approved, FY2017 to FY2026164
Gross dollars approved$110.0 million
Median loan$368,500
Middle half of loans, from$132,500
Middle half of loans, to$870,775
SBA 7(a) loans136
SBA 504 loans28
Franchise share of loanswithheld
Rank among metro and micro areas for dental office loans9 of 562
Rank of dental office among the classes in this area7 of 39
Location quotient (share of loans against the national share)0.82x
Median loan against the national median for the class0.73x

Cancellation and charge-off

Cancelled after approval, FY2017 to FY2024 approvals (a floor)15.9%
The same, counting loans still undisbursed as cancelled (a ceiling)15.9%
Charged off to date, FY2017 to FY2021 disbursed loans (a floor)0.00%
Charged off within five years of approval0.00%
Loans in that cohort82

Both rates are floors. SBA withholds the status of open loans, so a loan counts as charged off only once SBA reports it; a rate needs at least 30 loans in its cohort and is otherwise not reported.

SBA dental office loans approved in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH Metro Area, by fiscal year

0510152025FY2017FY2018FY2019FY2020FY2021FY2022FY2023FY2024FY2025FY2026Loans, FY2017: 21Loans, FY2018: 21Loans, FY2019: 15Loans, FY2020: 17Loans, FY2021: 23Loans, FY2022: 7Loans, FY2023: 7Loans, FY2024: 21Loans, FY2025: 16Loans, FY2026: 16
Fiscal yearLoansDollars
FY201721$12.1 million
FY201821$11.7 million
FY201915$9.4 million
FY202017$6.3 million
FY202123$24.5 million
FY20227$5.6 million
FY20237$3.4 million
FY202421$7.8 million
FY202516$13.7 million
FY202616$15.6 million

Most active SBA lenders

SBA 504: lenders by loans approved (the current holder of each loan, as SBA reports it)
LenderLoansDollars
Bay Colony Development Corporation18$9.3 million
SBA 7(a): lenders by loans approved (the current holder of each loan, as SBA reports it)
LenderLoansDollars
Live Oak Banking Company36$51.6 million
Eastern Bank24$3.6 million
Salem Five Cents Savings Bank8$2.7 million
TD Bank, National Association7$1.6 million
Northeast Bank (ME)6$1.7 million

Lenders with 5 or more loans here; a lender with fewer is not listed, and loans SBA or a receiver holds are counted but never listed as a lender.

Where the loans are, by county

CountyLoans
Middlesex County, MA47
Essex County, MA39
Norfolk County, MA26
Plymouth County, MA21
Suffolk County, MA16
Rockingham County, NH10
Strafford County, NH5

Counties with 5 or more loans; smaller ones are not listed.

Metro is the CBSA (metropolitan or micropolitan statistical area) of the loan's project county, July 2023 delineation (OMB Bulletin 23-01). The county is matched by name (manifests/ld2/county-cbsa-map.csv); a loan whose county cannot be placed in a 2023 CBSA is left out of every metro.

A value marked withheld rests on fewer than 5 loans, or is withheld so that such a figure cannot be derived from other published figures.

Source: U.S. Small Business Administration, 7(a) and 504 loan-level FOIA files (data.sba.gov), as of 2026-09-30; areas from the U.S. Census Bureau CBSA delineation, July 2023 (OMB Bulletin 23-01); Loan Analytics metro cell MA-14460-C20.

Loan Analytics prepares the feasibility study a lender reads before it commits: for a dental office project in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH Metro Area, financed under SBA 7(a), SBA 504, USDA Business and Industry or a conventional bank loan. Tell us the project and the lender's deadline, and we reply with scope, timeline and fee.

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