Feasibility Study Data for the Seaford, DE Micro Area

Very small loans in Sussex County

Seaford, DE is a micropolitan statistical area made up of Sussex County, DE, with 491 loans and $157.2 million for FY2017 to FY2026, ranking 171 of 928. Loans are very small. At $99,000 the median stands at just 0.48x the national level, and loans between $25,000 and $350,000 form the middle of the range, while franchise brands appear in only 6.9% of loans. Of the total, 477 are 7(a) and 14 are 504, with Delaware Community Development Corporation the only 504 holder listed, at 8 loans worth $5.8 million.

Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company holds 248 7(a) loans worth $21.4 million, a majority of the programme's local volume that no other name approaches. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB holds 22 worth $14.1 million, PNC Bank, National Association 18, First Financial Bank (AR) 17 worth $18.6 million and Northeast Bank (ME) 16. SBA's holder field locates loans; it says nothing about how any of these institutions lends, and a borrower should ask each directly.

What gets financed

Full-service restaurant tops the list with 27 loans, then fitness center and limited-service restaurant at 15 each, automotive mechanical repair at 13, and beauty salon at 9. Child care center shows 8, liquor store 7 and rehabilitation and therapy clinic and medical office 6 each. Another 358 loans fall in no tracked class. These are ordinary local businesses.

Approved loans later cancelled make up 12.0% as a floor for FY2024 and earlier, and 13.7% as a ceiling that adds loans never disbursed. Charge-offs are 3.6% to date across 194 funded loans. Seaford's five-year rate is unpublished, so no figure appears here. Volume held near 45 loans a year through FY2022, dipped to 36 in FY2023 and climbed to 76 loans and $26.4 million in FY2025.

What the Sussex County record asks of a study

Cost has to be fitted to the very small loans that characterise the area, demand shown for Sussex County, and debt service coverage tested against the floors printed on this page. Because one bank holds so many loans, it is worth knowing whether that institution's appetite, and not only the market's, shapes the financing. An appraisal that supports value closes the work. Sussex County is placed by the 2023 delineation. Readers on either side of a loan should take this as background, never as a promise.