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Industry · SBA lending record

SBA loans for logging

1,106 SBA 7(a) loans since 2010. What they were for, how big, how long, and how often they went wrong.

Loans made
1,106
2010 onward
Typical loan
$90k
median approved
Typical term
7 yr
4.2%
all industries 5.7%

How this industry compares

defaulted within 7 years
Logging
4.2%
Typical industry
5.3%
All industries
5.7%

Default rate is not a judgement on the industry. It tells you how a lender will price your risk, and how much cushion you should build in.

When borrowers got into trouble

share of failures by year
Year 1
4%
Year 2
8%
Year 3
6%
Year 4
14%
Year 5
20%
Year 6+
48%

Trouble rarely arrives in year one. It arrives when the opening cash is gone — which is an argument for borrowing more working capital, not less.

What this means for your application

A typical loan here runs $90k over 7 years. If you are asking for far more than that, expect harder questions and a longer file. If far less, check which lenders will even take it — many won't go below $150,000.

Find lenders by smallest loan → Check the numbers work →

Source SBA 7(a) FOIA, NAICS 113 Released 2026-06-30 Loans 1,106

SBA 504 in Logging

504 FOIA record

504 is rarely used here — only 25 504 loans to logging since 2010, because the program is built for owner-occupied real estate and heavy equipment rather than general business use. If you are buying owner-occupied property in this line of work it can still be the cheaper deal — see how 504 works or find a CDC.

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