SBA Loans in MVA Cities

The US Small Business Administration (SBA) is a federal agency created through the Small Business Act of 1953. In the Act, Congress stated:

“The essence of the American economic system of private enterprise is free competition. Only through full and free competition can free markets, free entry into business, and opportunities for the expression and growth of personal initiative and individual judgment be assured… It is the declared policy of the Congress that the Government should aid, counsel, assist, and protect insofar as is possible the interests of small-business concerns in order to preserve free competitive enterprise…”

Section 7(a) sets forth the legal underpinning for the SBA’s most popular small business loan program. The 7(a) loans can be used to acquire a business or, for existing businesses, a broad set of activities. In FY2015 loan volume topped 63,000 loans or over $23.6 billion–a considerable rise from prior years. A large share of these loans went to Women, Veteran, and Minority-owned businesses. (See: www.sba.govfor information on programs and eligibility)

As a resource to COP members, we created loan-level spreadsheets for each of your counties detailing approved and originated SBA 7(a) loans. Listings include company names, loan amounts, and the zip code of the “principal place of performance” (i.e., where the dollars were used). We extracted and processed these data from www.USASpending.Gov and they represent FY2015 activity.

Access the resource here: https://goo.gl/CB5v2B

While MVAs focus principally on housing markets, it is important to understand the connection between housing, labor and business markets. These SBA data are likely not something that you have seen but they represent a critical part of the capital flow into your communities.

As you peruse your spreadsheets are there things that are surprising? Things about which you would like to know more? Ways you could use these data in tandem with MVA-informed strategies?