Feasibility Study Data for the Valdosta, GA Metro Area

Valdosta in the SBA loan record

Valdosta, GA is a metropolitan area, and its 124 SBA approvals in FY2017 to FY2026 carried $138.2 million in gross dollars. Valdosta ranks as a mid-table area, 422 of 928 by loan count. In Valdosta, GA, every asset class is pooled for Valdosta. That view of Valdosta is missing from GA and national tables.

$190,150 to $1.7 million spans the middle half of Valdosta loans, and $495,000 is the median. Valdosta sits well above the national level: its 2.38x ratio to the national median means Valdosta requests sized nationally may look small. 110 of the Valdosta loans are 7(a); 14 are 504; Valdosta borrowers meet 7(a) most. Valdosta franchise loans reach 27.4%, so brand standards often shape a Valdosta request there.

Valdosta: classes, places and lenders

Valdosta's tracked classes, largest first: 16 loans in hotel and motel; 9 loans in limited-service restaurant; 7 loans in full-service restaurant; 6 loans in child care center. 67 Valdosta loans sit outside the tracked classes, so Valdosta operating businesses show up in these totals. Valdosta's top counties by loans: 114 loans in Lowndes County, GA. Valdosta 7(a) lending is led by 9 loans at Commercial Banking Company ($2.8 million); 7 loans at The Huntington National Bank ($5.0 million); 6 loans at Farmers and Merchants Bank (GA) ($12.0 million). Southern Georgia Area Development Corporation ($3.8 million, 8 loans) lead 504 lending in Valdosta. Commercial Banking Company's 9 loans, like every Valdosta lender figure, are an SBA record of Valdosta loans held or once held. No Valdosta lender is judged by these counts.

Valdosta, between FY2017 (14 loans) and FY2026 (11), peaked at 19 in FY2025 and bottomed at 7 in FY2023. Valdosta cancellations stand at 8.5%, a floor, for Valdosta approvals in FY2017 to FY2024; Valdosta's ceiling is withheld, never zero in Valdosta. Valdosta: no charge-off floor is printed. Its Valdosta cohort is too thin; Valdosta withholds it; withheld is not zero. Valdosta, GA membership follows the July 2023 delineation; Valdosta counties are matched by name, and a Valdosta loan with no match is dropped, so 124 is a floor, and every Valdosta rate is too.

Valdosta: testing a project

For Valdosta, a study tests Valdosta demand within a defined trade area, since Lowndes County, GA dominates Valdosta loan counts. If a Valdosta concept resembles hotel and motel, Valdosta offers size and lender precedent; other Valdosta concepts must rest on their own Valdosta evidence. Valdosta quotes should price construction and equipment. Then Valdosta debt service coverage is tested at $495,000, and again at $1.7 million. Valdosta is metropolitan, so a Valdosta appraisal should name its submarket and test Valdosta comparables inside it. Nothing printed for Valdosta predicts approval; each Valdosta lender still reviews a study.