The median approved loan across 20,769 acquisition records was $707,000. For full-service restaurants it was $465,000. For hotels and motels outside the casino category it was just over $3 million. The business category changes what a useful benchmark looks like.
Five industries on the same scale
These are five frequently recorded industries chosen to show the span of approval sizes. The hotel median was about 6.6 times the full-service restaurant median. That does not measure the price difference between businesses, since the approved loan may cover more than the purchase itself and the file does not break out how borrowers use the funds.
The range matters as much as the midpoint
Across the whole dataset, the middle half of approvals ranged from $300,000 to $1.6 million. There were 8,022 approvals under $500,000, about 39% of the total, and 3,968 approvals of $2 million or more, about 19%. A single median gives no sense of how many loans sit far from the middle.
Local profiles can add another useful comparison. The national median for full-service restaurants was $465,000, compared with $455,000 across 143 approvals in California and $644,500 across 124 approvals in Texas. Those samples describe different sets of businesses. They cannot establish that a comparable restaurant needs a larger loan in Texas or explain how much property, equipment or working capital was included.
Use the comparison to ask better questions
Start with a narrow category and check its approval count before relying on its midpoint. Then compare the type of business, amount and geography with the lender’s recorded activity. When you talk to lenders, ask what costs they include in the requested amount. Comparing a loan that includes additional working capital with one that covers only part of the purchase gives a misleading impression of which is larger.
Explore full-service restaurant approvals or compare automotive repair approvals.