Manufactured Housing Community Feasibility Study in Texas

First among states, though only 33 loans

Texas tops every other state in SBA lending to manufactured housing communities, ranking 1 of 47, yet the class sits near the bottom of the Texas table at 30 of 39. Both facts are true because the volume is small: 33 approvals between FY2017 and FY2026 worth $33.3 million. A location quotient of 1.44x means communities form a larger part of Texas approvals than of the national mix, a modest tilt that only a handful of deals produces.

Loans larger than the class norm

A median of $849,000 comes to 1.80x what the class borrows nationally, and the middle of the distribution reaches from $324,400 to $1.3 million. A community purchase or expansion involves land, utilities, pads and roads, so a larger cheque than a single storefront is what the median would suggest. Of the 33 loans, 30 used the 7(a) program and 3 used 504, and franchising touches 12.1% of loans, a figure the shared code described below makes hard to interpret.

Where the lending happened

Harris County holds 6 loans, Bexar 5, and Dallas and Tarrant 4 each, then Travis with 3. The annual record peaked at 9 loans in FY2020 and $11.4 million in FY2021 from 8 loans, and it stops after FY2023: there are no approvals in FY2024, FY2025 or FY2026. A newcomer should not assume this lender appetite is current. SBA's listing shows no lender for this cell, so none appears here.

Cancellations, and a rate we cannot give

Cancellation took at least 12.1% of Texas approvals made between FY2017 and FY2024, a share that grows to 15.2% once loans not yet disbursed are treated as lost. The charge-off percentage is left out because the funded loans are too few to support it; treat it as unknown, never nil.

The shared code

SBA files manufactured home sites in a code that also covers other lessors of real estate, including land and real estate investment trusts of other property types. Some of the 33 loans may therefore finance something other than a manufactured housing community, and a reader should regard the cell as a close but imperfect proxy.

What a Texas community study has to test

Lot rent and occupancy come first: current rents on comparable pads, the share of homes owned by residents versus the operator, and the delinquency pattern. The study should price infrastructure, since water, sewer and road repairs can dominate the budget, and show whether municipal or private utilities serve the site. Zoning and any limits on expansion need documentation. A loan near the median of $849,000 should be tested for debt service coverage with a slower fill-up of new pads, and the appraisal will rest on the stabilised rent roll.