The Dallas Feasibility Market: SBA, USDA and Its Structural Variables

Data as of June 2026. This companion research post carries the full structural and capital-markets detail behind the Dallas feasibility study hub. Every figure traces to a primary source named in the Sources list. MMCG's city briefs use primary and FOIA sources and do not carry commercial rent, vacancy or occupancy figures.

Dallas carries its own set of statute and government rooted variables that redefine the underwriting envelope for a commercial real estate, SBA or USDA feasibility study. Each is stated here at the level a primary source supports.

Property tax reliance with no state income tax. Texas has no state property tax and no state personal income tax, so cities, counties, school districts and special purpose districts fund themselves through local property taxes. The Comptroller states that local property tax is the largest single funding source for community services, paying for schools, streets, roads, police and fire. For Dallas commercial underwriting this makes the property tax line one of the largest and most volatile operating costs, and effective rates run high, so a national expense template that assumes a light tax load will overstate stabilized net operating income.

The ERCOT grid outside federal jurisdiction. The Dallas-Fort Worth region is served by ERCOT, one of the three main United States interconnections, which the EIA says operate largely independently with limited transfers of power between them. The GAO records that the ERCOT market is basically isolated from other markets because its transmission has only minor interconnections, and that FERC has limited jurisdiction because the market is essentially intrastate, leaving oversight with the Public Utility Commission of Texas. Underwriting must therefore price a competitive retail electric market and a grid whose reliability and scarcity pricing follow state rules, not a national pattern.

Municipal Utility Districts and special-district taxes. In Texas, suburban water, sewer, drainage and road infrastructure is often financed through Municipal Utility Districts, which the TCEQ describes as political subdivisions that provide water, wastewater and drainage within their boundaries. A district issues bonds to build the systems, then, per the TCEQ guide, its board must levy an annual property tax sufficient to cover the district's outstanding debt, assessed on all property regardless of services received. For a Dallas deal this stacks a district tax on top of city, county and school taxes, so total tax load and buyer disclosure must be underwritten parcel by parcel.

DFW Airport owned by two cities. Dallas Fort Worth International Airport is owned jointly by the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth and governed by a board whose members are appointed by the two city councils, seven representing Dallas and four representing Fort Worth in proportion to each city's ownership interest. The board can sign contracts on its own, but its annual budget and bond sales need owner city approval. Because a government entity of this scale anchors regional air cargo, logistics and employment, underwriting nearby industrial or hospitality projects must weigh public governance, board approvals and airport driven demand rather than a purely private landlord market.

Groundwater rule of capture and conservation districts. Texas groundwater is governed by the rule of capture, which the Texas Water Development Board describes as letting a landowner pump whatever groundwater is available regardless of the effect on neighboring wells. That common law right is limited only where a groundwater conservation district regulates production through permits and well spacing, which state law authorizes districts to do. For Dallas metro parcels that rely on wells rather than a municipal reservoir system, especially rural and edge sites, water availability and cost turn on capture rights and the local district, so supply due diligence differs sharply from a template assuming a regulated utility.

Nationally, the U.S. Small Business Administration closed fiscal year 2025 having guaranteed 84,400 7(a) and 504 loans for $44.8 billion, comprising 77,600 7(a) loans for $37 billion and 6,750 504 loans for $7.8 billion, per SBA News Release 25-83 dated September 30, 2025. The Dallas metro cut below is computed in-house from the SBA 7(a) and 504 FOIA release by county membership across the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area, never read from an SBA district total.

In fiscal year 2025 the Dallas metro recorded 2,193 7(a) approvals for $1,460,962,500 and 84 504 approvals for $167,299,000, filed largely through the DALLAS / FT WORTH DISTRICT OFFICE. The most active 7(a) lenders in the metro that year, by approval count, were The Huntington National Bank (258 loans); Northeast Bank (235 loans); Newtek Bank, National Association (164 loans); Readycap Lending, LLC (88 loans); Wells Fargo Bank National Association (78 loans); BayFirst National Bank (76 loans); Live Oak Banking Company (74 loans); JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association (72 loans). The most active 504 Certified Development Companies were Capital Certified Development Corporation (27 loans, $53,991,000); Greater East Texas Certified Development Company (20 loans, $49,033,000); LiftFund, Inc. (17 loans, $33,879,000); North Texas Certified Development Corporation (11 loans, $15,350,000); Texas Certified Development Company, Inc. (2 loans, $6,221,000); Alliance Lending Corporation (2 loans, $1,558,000).

USDA Business and Industry financing runs under 7 CFR Part 5001, implementing the statutory rural test. Under 7 U.S.C. 1991(a)(13)(A), rural means any area other than a city or town of more than 50,000 inhabitants and any urbanized area contiguous and adjacent to it. The Dallas metro's outer counties hold many towns well below that line, so a project in one of them can qualify for USDA Business and Industry or Community Facilities support that an inner Dallas or Fort Worth site cannot; MMCG verifies eligibility at the subject address on the USDA eligibility map at intake.

A Dallas market piece would ordinarily carry submarket rents, vacancy and absorption. Those come from commercial market reports, which MMCG's city briefs do not carry, so they are omitted rather than shown on a weaker source. What remains is the statute, the federal program frame and the SBA record computed from the primary file, which is the part of a Dallas study a lender can check.