A record with its programme split withheld

Hobbs, NM is Lea County alone, a micropolitan area with 171 loans and $88.5 million from FY2017 to FY2026, ranking 347 of 928. Unusually, SBA holds back even the split between 7(a) and 504 for Hobbs, along with the charge-off rate, since small counts could expose individual loans; none of them is shown here and none should be taken as zero. What remains is the size of loans, a cancellation floor and a lender table.

The $130,000 median sits at 0.63x the country's; loans in the middle of the range stretch from $50,000 to $358,700. Franchise brands account for 5.8%. Cancellation floor and ceiling coincide at 9.9% for approvals through FY2024. Western Commerce Bank holds 102 loans worth $39.1 million, far more than any other name, while Wells Fargo Bank National Association holds 19 worth only $461,200. Lea County holds all 171 loans. Because the programme split is withheld, nobody can tell how much of Lea County's record is real estate lending, and the lender table is no basis for guessing.

What the holder table does and does not say

The holder entry in SBA's files identifies the institution of record. It tells a borrower where the loan book sits in Lea County and nothing about how any bank evaluates a request. The first name holds a large share of the book; whether that reflects market position, product focus or history cannot be read from these records, and a borrower should ask directly.

Hotel and motel stands alone among tracked classes, at 9 loans, and 147 loans fall in none of the classes, so the class table is almost silent. Annual approvals slid from 30 loans in FY2017 to 10 in FY2021, then climbed back to 19 in FY2023; FY2019 stands out in dollars at $14.7 million.

What a study in Lea County has to cover

With so little published, a study carries more of the load. It must show demand for the specific use in Lea County, size cost against loans well below the national level, test debt service with conservative assumptions, and support the appraised value. Because one bank dominates, the study might also anticipate a narrow lender field. Lea County comes from the 2023 delineation. This is meant for lenders and borrowers, and nothing here guarantees an approval.

SBA loans in the Hobbs, NM Micro Area

Loans approved, FY2017 to FY2026	171
Gross dollars approved	$88.5 million
Median loan	$130,000
Middle half of loans, from	$50,000
Middle half of loans, to	$358,700
SBA 7(a) loans	withheld
SBA 504 loans	withheld
Franchise share of loans	5.8%
Rank among metro and micro areas by loans	347 of 928
Median loan against the national median	0.63x

Cancellation and charge-off

Cancelled after approval, FY2017 to FY2024 approvals (a floor)	9.9%
The same, counting loans still undisbursed as cancelled (a ceiling)	9.9%
Charged off to date, FY2017 to FY2021 disbursed loans (a floor)	withheld

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 loans approved in the Hobbs, NM Micro Area, by fiscal year

Fiscal year	Loans	Dollars
FY2017	30	$6.9 million
FY2018	20	$3.4 million
FY2019	17	$14.7 million
FY2020	16	$4.9 million
FY2021	10	$10.5 million
FY2022	16	$9.1 million
FY2023	19	$8.1 million
FY2024	13	$7.9 million
FY2025	17	$14.1 million
FY2026	13	$8.9 million

Loans by asset class

Asset class	Loans
Not in any of the 39 asset classes	147
Hotel and motel	9

Classes with 5 or more loans; smaller ones are withheld, and more where a small one could be derived.

Most active SBA lenders

SBA 7(a): lenders by loans approved (the current holder of each loan, as SBA reports it)
Lender	Loans	Dollars
Western Commerce Bank	102	$39.1 million
Wells Fargo Bank National Association	19	$461,200
Northeast Bank (ME)	6	$1.3 million
First American Bank (NM)	5	$1.9 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

County	Loans
Lea County, NM	171

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.

All assets: every 7(a) and 504 approval in the metro, including those outside the 39 asset classes.

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 MT-26020.

Related feasibility study pages

Loan Analytics prepares the feasibility study a lender reads before it commits: for a commercial project in the Hobbs, NM Micro 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.

Daniel Smith, MAI

Feasibility Study Data for the Hobbs, NM Micro Area