Guides
SBA 7(a) acquisition loans by industry, size and lender, FY2019 to FY2026
The median SBA 7(a) loan to buy a business was $968,000 in fiscal 2026 (October 2025 to September 2026), up from $548,050 in fiscal 2019. Acquisition loans are about five times the size of 7(a) loans to established businesses, priced at a median of prime + 2.00, and made mostly to restaurants, hotels, liquor stores and gas stations. Two lenders, Live Oak Bank and Huntington, made 17% of them. Below $350,000 they charge off less often than loans to established businesses of the same size; above $350,000 they charge off two to three times as often. All figures come from our tabulation of SBA’s loan-level 7(a) file, data as of September 30, 2026, and the tables are free to download below.
What the SBA rules require of a buyer, and how a deal is structured, is on SBA loan to buy a business. This page is the data behind it.
Method. Source: SBA’s 7(a) FOIA loan file as of September 30, 2026 (data.sba.gov), 949,395 approvals from fiscal 2010 to fiscal 2026. The file has no loan-purpose field. An acquisition loan here is one the lender coded “Change of Ownership” in the business-age field, not cancelled and not a revolving line. That code starts with loans approved December 8, 2017, so fiscal 2019 is the first full year. Some purchases are coded “Existing” instead, so the counts are a floor, not a census. Cells with fewer than 30 loans are suppressed. Dollar figures are nominal. Fiscal 2026 includes 1,573 approved loans that had not disbursed by September 30 and can still be cancelled.
Loan size, term and rate by fiscal year
| Fiscal year | Loans | Median loan | Middle half | Over $1M | Median term | Median variable spread | Share of all 7(a) loans |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 5,376 | $548,050 | $250,000 to $1,250,000 | 31.2% | 120 months | Prime + 2.25 | 11.8% |
| 2020 | 4,636 | $676,300 | $315,600 to $1,425,000 | 35.8% | 120 months | Prime + 2.25 | 12.7% |
| 2021 | 5,652 | $756,000 | $360,000 to $1,593,825 | 39.7% | 120 months | Prime + 2.25 | 12.5% |
| 2022 | 4,266 | $800,000 | $350,000 to $1,700,000 | 42.7% | 120 months | Prime + 2.00 | 10.1% |
| 2023 | 4,238 | $725,000 | $351,000 to $1,550,000 | 37.9% | 120 months | Prime + 2.00 | 8.2% |
| 2024 | 4,831 | $801,800 | $390,300 to $1,640,400 | 40.2% | 120 months | Prime + 2.00 | 7.7% |
| 2025 | 5,903 | $868,000 | $430,350 to $1,832,900 | 42.7% | 120 months | Prime + 2.00 | 9.2% |
| 2026 | 5,733 | $968,000 | $457,000 to $1,990,000 | 48.4% | 120 months | Prime + 2.00 | 11.8% |
Findings
1. The median acquisition loan rose 77% from fiscal 2019 to fiscal 2026. It went from $548,050 to $968,000, and 11.5% in the last year alone. The share over $1 million rose from 31.2% to 48.4%. These are nominal dollars, not adjusted for inflation.
2. Acquisition loans are 5.3 times the size of loans to established businesses. Over fiscal 2024 to 2026 the median acquisition loan was $882,000 (16,467 loans), against $166,000 for businesses more than two years old (69,482 loans) and $350,000 for startups (23,501 loans). 44.0% of acquisition loans were over $1 million, against 12.1% for established businesses.
3. They are priced at a median of prime + 2.00, a point under the cap. The median variable-rate spread was 2.00 every year from fiscal 2022 to 2026 and 2.25 in fiscal 2019 to 2021. Established businesses paid a median of prime + 2.75 over fiscal 2024 to 2026. SBA caps variable rates on loans over $350,000 at prime + 3.0 (SBA), and 99.5% of fiscal 2025 to 2026 variable-rate acquisition loans over $350,000 were at or under it (8,282 of 8,327). 87.6% of acquisition loans in those two years were variable-rate. Spread is the initial rate minus the bank prime rate on the approval date (Federal Reserve H.15, FRED DPRIME).
4. The typical loan runs 10 years with a 75% SBA guarantee. The median term was 120 months in every year. 20.0% to 26.6% of loans ran 240 months or more, which usually means real estate was in the deal. 92.9% of fiscal 2025 to 2026 loans carried a 75% guarantee. Fiscal 2021 had a median of 90%, the temporary guarantee SBA applied from December 27, 2020 through September 30, 2021 under the Economic Aid Act (SBA Information Notice 5000-20084).
5. Restaurants, hotels, liquor stores and gas stations lead. The table below covers fiscal 2020 to 2026: 35,259 acquisition loans, $44.27 billion approved. 18.1% went to franchises, most often The UPS Store (291 loans).
| Industry (NAICS) | Loans | Median loan | 20+ year term | Franchised | Acquisitions as share of the industry’s 7(a) loans |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full-service restaurants (722511) | 1,990 | $493,000 | 19.7% | 9.3% | 15.2% |
| Hotels and motels (721110) | 1,782 | $2,750,000 | 98.6% | 75.2% | 33.6% |
| Limited-service restaurants (722513) | 1,578 | $405,000 | 10.5% | 52.2% | 15.6% |
| Beer, wine and liquor stores (445320) | 1,341 | $702,000 | 25.1% | 0.9% | 39.6% |
| Gas stations with convenience stores (457110) | 1,105 | $1,525,000 | 80.6% | 55.3% | 31.9% |
| General automotive repair (811111) | 836 | $663,150 | 29.1% | 13.3% | 20.8% |
| Insurance agencies (524210) | 685 | $755,000 | 0.9% | 6.6% | 19.7% |
| Plumbing and HVAC contractors (238220) | 626 | $1,000,000 | 4.8% | 2.7% | 16.2% |
| Other specialty trade contractors (238990) | 618 | $1,012,750 | 5.0% | 8.9% | 16.7% |
| Child day care (624410) | 605 | $870,000 | 43.8% | 22.0% | 14.0% |
Across all industries, acquisitions were 7.7% to 12.7% of 7(a) loans, depending on the year. The industries most made up of purchases were liquor stores (39.6%), funeral homes (35.8%), hotels (33.6%), gas stations (31.9%) and CPA offices (29.3%).
6. 4.8% of fiscal 2015 to 2019 7(a) term loans charged off within six years. That is 8,930 of 186,775 disbursed loans, all borrowers, not only acquisitions; 7.18% had charged off by September 2026. By sector the six-year rate ran from 6.62% in arts and recreation, 6.12% in wholesale and 5.98% in construction down to 2.84% in health care and 1.66% in agriculture. Industries with 500 or more loans:
| Industry | Disbursed loans | Six-year charge-off rate |
|---|---|---|
| Residential remodelers | 1,679 | 10.66% |
| Fitness and recreational sports centers | 4,397 | 7.44% |
| Limited-service restaurants | 8,441 | 6.43% |
| Full-service restaurants | 11,726 | 5.17% |
| Dentists | 3,688 | 1.38% |
| Gas stations with convenience stores | 2,635 | 0.99% |
| Veterinary services | 1,676 | 0.89% |
| Hotels and motels | 4,535 | 0.57% |
7. Loan size predicts charge-offs more strongly than industry does. In the same cohorts, loans of $150,000 or less charged off at 7.00% within six years (79,541 loans), and loans of $2 million to $5 million at 1.00% (11,490 loans). SBA Express and other loans charged off at about the same rate, 4.64% and 4.83%.
8. Above $350,000, acquisition loans charge off two to three times as often as same-size loans to established businesses. Overall, acquisition loans look safer: five-year charge-off rates for fiscal 2019 to 2020 approvals were 1.92% for acquisitions (10,012 loans), 2.85% for established businesses (31,142) and 4.48% for startups (11,643). That gap comes from size, because larger loans charge off less and acquisition loans are larger. Weighted to the acquisition-loan size mix, established businesses come to 1.60%, below the 1.92% for acquisitions.
| Loan size | Acquisition | Established business |
|---|---|---|
| $150,000 or less | 3.16% (1,077 loans) | 4.41% (13,337) |
| $150,000 to $350,000 | 3.08% (2,237) | 3.34% (7,117) |
| $350,000 to $1M | 1.55% (3,359) | 0.77% (5,845) |
| $1M to $2M | 1.21% (1,897) | 0.35% (2,886) |
| $2M to $5M | 0.97% (1,442) | 0.36% (1,957) |
The established-business rates above $1 million rest on 10 and 7 charge-offs, so the size of the gap there is uncertain. Losses to date as a share of approved dollars are 1.68% for acquisitions and 1.46% for established businesses.
9. Acquisition approvals jumped 80% in May 2025, the month before SOP 50 10 8 took effect, then fell 29% in June. There were 929 acquisition approvals in May 2025 against 515 in May 2024, and 365 in June 2025 against 512. All 7(a) approvals did the same: 8,458 against 6,434 in May, 3,813 against 5,904 in June. SOP 50 10 8 applied to applications issued an SBA loan number on or after June 1, 2025 (SBA Information Notice 5000-866746).
10. In the first 12 months under SOP 50 10 8, acquisition approvals fell 13% while all 7(a) approvals fell 33%. June 2025 to May 2026 against June 2024 to May 2025, counting every approval including later cancellations: acquisitions 6,512 against 7,508 (down 13.3%, or 8.2% with October and November left out of both years), all 7(a) 56,454 against 83,737 (down 32.6%). Acquisitions rose from 9.0% to 11.5% of approvals, and the median acquisition loan from $838,500 to $943,000. This is a before-and-after comparison, not an estimate of what the SOP caused: prime fell over the period, and the funding gap falls inside it.
11. September 2026 had 1,270 acquisition approvals, the most of any month in the file. That is 40.2% more than September 2025 (906), while all 7(a) approvals fell 10.5% (6,289 against 7,024). September is the last month of SBA’s fiscal year and is usually high, and it was also the last month before SOP 50 10 8.1 took effect on October 1, 2026. 1,224 of September’s acquisition approvals had not disbursed by September 30, so the figure can fall. Over the full fiscal year, acquisition approvals fell 4.6% (7,184 against 7,533) while all 7(a) approvals fell 28.1% (56,130 against 78,078), and acquisitions rose to 12.8% of approvals from 9.6%.
12. The file has no 7(a) approvals dated October 1 to November 12, 2025. That matches the federal funding gap of those dates (CRS R48832). January 2026 had 967 acquisition approvals, the second-highest month in the file.
13. Live Oak Bank and Huntington made 17% of acquisition loans, and the top 10 lenders made 31%. Over fiscal 2024 to 2026, 1,007 lenders made at least one acquisition loan. The top 10 made 31.3% of the loans and 36.4% of the dollars. GBank made only 308 loans but at a median of $3,024,000, which puts it third by dollars. The lender is the current holder in SBA’s file, which may not be the bank that made the loan.
| Rank by loans | Lender | Loans | Share of loans | Dollars approved | Share of dollars | Median loan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Live Oak Banking Company | 1,573 | 9.6% | $2.58B | 11.6% | $1,150,000 |
| 2 | The Huntington National Bank | 1,219 | 7.4% | $1.50B | 6.8% | $842,000 |
| 3 | Byline Bank | 386 | 2.3% | $0.56B | 2.5% | $1,127,500 |
| 4 | First Internet Bank of Indiana | 371 | 2.3% | $0.73B | 3.3% | $1,600,000 |
| 5 | Hanmi Bank | 341 | 2.1% | $0.30B | 1.4% | $610,000 |
| 6 | GBank | 308 | 1.9% | $0.94B | 4.3% | $3,024,000 |
| 7 | United Midwest Savings Bank | 273 | 1.7% | $0.25B | 1.1% | $670,000 |
| 8 | Celtic Bank | 253 | 1.5% | $0.37B | 1.7% | $935,000 |
| 9 | Beacon Bank and Trust | 219 | 1.3% | $0.44B | 2.0% | $1,570,000 |
| 10 | Open Bank | 214 | 1.3% | $0.40B | 1.8% | $1,259,500 |
States. Per 10,000 employer establishments (Census County Business Patterns 2023), fiscal 2024 to 2026 acquisition loans were highest in Colorado (36.99), Washington (35.46) and Minnesota (29.85). New York was lowest at 9.20 among the 48 states and DC with 30 or more loans. California made the most loans (1,748) and Texas the most dollars ($2.36 billion).
What this data cannot show
- Loan purpose. The file has no purpose field. “Change of Ownership” is the lender’s business-age code, it also covers partner buyouts, and some purchases are coded “Existing”. Treat counts as a floor.
- Defaults. A charge-off is not a default. Charge-offs come a year or more after a default, and delinquent loans and loans in liquidation sit inside the open status. The rates here are lower bounds on default rates.
- Recent cohorts. Charge-off rates are computed only for cohorts whose full five- or six-year window ended by September 30, 2026, so nothing here says how loans made under SOP 50 10 8 will perform. The fiscal 2019 to 2020 cohorts were repaying through the 2020 to 2021 pandemic relief programs, which probably held their charge-offs down.
- Fiscal 2026. 1,573 fiscal 2026 acquisition loans were approved but not yet disbursed, and later files will cancel some of them.
- Inflation. Dollar figures are nominal.
- Rates below prime. 1,473 fiscal 2020 to 2026 acquisition loans show a rate below prime. They are kept; medians limit their effect.
Download the data
Every table is a CSV, aggregated from SBA’s file, with cells under 30 loans blanked. No borrower names or addresses were loaded. The tables are free to use under CC BY 4.0 with credit to “Hyperresearch, from SBA 7(a) FOIA data as of September 30, 2026”. SBA’s own file is public domain.
- Size, term, rate and guarantee by fiscal year
- Acquisition vs established and startup loans, FY2024 to 2026
- By sector, FY2020 to 2026
- Top 30 industries, FY2020 to 2026
- By state, FY2024 to 2026
- Top 25 lenders, FY2024 to 2026
- Monthly approvals, July 2023 to September 2026
- Six-year charge-offs by sector, FY2015 to 2019 cohorts
- Six-year charge-offs by industry, 500+ loans
- Six-year charge-offs by loan size
- Six-year charge-offs, SBA Express vs other
- Five-year charge-offs, acquisition vs other, FY2019 to 2020
- Five-year charge-offs by size, acquisition vs other
- Five-year acquisition charge-offs by sector, FY2018 to 2020
- Five-year acquisition charge-offs by size
- Five-year acquisition charge-offs, franchise vs not
How the tables were built: prime is the last H.15 value on or before each approval date; a k-year charge-off is a loan in charged-off status whose charge-off date is less than k years after approval, over loans that disbursed; NAICS retail codes renumbered in 2022 are mapped to their 2022 codes. The tables are refreshed when SBA posts a new quarterly file.
Researching one industry or deal
These tables are national. For a single purchase, the questions are narrower: how this industry’s loans have performed in this state, what comparable businesses sold for, and how the local market is moving. Hyperresearch writes that up as a cited report, with every citation checked against its source. See how to value a small business for the valuation side of the same deal.