Feasibility Study Consultant in Maryland

What makes a Maryland feasibility study different is that its property tax line runs on two clocks at once: the State values real property on a 3-year cycle and phases any increase into the assessment a third at a time [18], while each county and Baltimore City sets its own single real property rate every year [21], so a Maryland study projects the tax bill cycle year by cycle year, at the rate of the county that levies it, before it computes a debt service coverage ratio (DSCR). The county is where most of the other lines are decided too. Admissions and amusement tax is a county or municipal option [27], an alcohol license application is filed with the local licensing board [49], a charter school applies to its county board [47], and the one hotel tax rate in this page's evidence, Washington County's 6 percent, rests on a local resolution [70]. Even the SBA office follows county lines: Montgomery and Prince George's counties belong to the Washington Metropolitan Area District Office, and Baltimore City and every other county to the Baltimore District Office [14][15]. Demand gathers in the same counties, since 90.1 percent of Maryland's 6,265,347 residents live in a county that belongs to one of four metros of more than 250,000 people [4][1]. The page follows that county logic in the order a credit officer reads a file: the Maryland questions a lender asks, the demand base, the five places over 50,000 [3], the four metros, the state rules for each asset family, three illustrative models that carry Maryland rules into DSCR, and the offices and documents a Maryland file relies on.

What does a Maryland lender look for in a feasibility study?

A Maryland lender looks for coverage that holds through the whole reassessment cycle: net operating income after a property tax projected at each year's phased-in value and the levying county's rate, and after every county tax and license the operation carries. FSC's guide to lender feasibility study requirements sets out what bank regulators, SBA and USDA expect of any study, and the page on what makes a feasibility study bankable covers the qualities a credit committee tests. What follows is only what Maryland adds to them.

As in every state, USDA requires a study by an independent qualified consultant for a Business and Industry guarantee above $1,000,000 to a new business [12], and SBA may ask for one [13].

A Maryland reviewer then works through seven questions, and the State's assessment statute answers most of them before any market evidence is read.

• Where does the parcel sit in its cycle? The assessment is the phased-in value [18]. A cycle is three calendar years that begin after a physical inspection, and an increase the inspection finds enters the assessment one-third in the first year, two-thirds in the second and in full in the third [18]. A property whose last inspection found a large increase therefore carries three different tax bills in three years, and the study shows all three.
• When is the value fixed? Real property is valued as of the date of finality [17], which is January 1, and the property tax year runs from July 1 to June 30 [16]. A projection that opens in the summer is using a value that was fixed the winter before.
• Will construction reopen the assessment? In any year of the cycle, substantially completed improvements that add at least $100,000 of value bring a revaluation [19]. A new building or a large expansion joins the roll when it is finished, not at the next scheduled inspection, and the study names that year.
• How will the assessor read the income? For income-producing commercial property the supervisor of assessments must consider an income method and may capitalize income [20]. Owners are asked each year for an income and expense statement under oath, due by May 15, and where a property is valued above $5,000,000 on the roll the supervisor can designate owners who must file or face a penalty [20]. The operating statement in the study and the statement the owner files should tell the same story.
• What rate does the county set? Each county and Baltimore City sets one county rate for all real property, with listed exceptions, before June 20 each year, and the county rate on personal property and certain operating real property may be as much as 2.5 times the real property rate [21]. In Howard County the FY2025 direct rates were 1.044 per $100 on real property and 2.610 on personal property, exactly that multiple [69].
• What happens if the assessment comes in high? A taxpayer may appeal a value or classification in a notice of assessment to the supervisor on or before 45 days from the date of the notice, and a new owner of property transferred after January 1 and before the next taxable year may appeal on or before 60 days after the transfer [73]. The supervisor's final notice can then be appealed to the property tax assessment appeal board on or before 30 days from its date [74][22], and both sides exchange any written appraisals at least 10 days before a hearing on value [22]. The windows are calendar facts a study can state; the outcome of an appeal is not something it can project.
• Which SBA office takes the file? The Baltimore District Office serves Baltimore City and all Maryland counties except Montgomery and Prince George's [14], and those two counties belong to the Washington Metropolitan Area District Office [15].

Table 1 gathers the property tax rules behind those answers in the order a projection meets them.

Table 1. Maryland property tax rules that set the tax line

Source: Tax-Property Article sections 1-101 [16], 8-102 [17], 8-103 [18], 8-104 [19], 8-105 [20], 6-302 [21], 14-502 [73], 8-407 [74] and 14-509 [22].

Every row in Table 1 changes a figure above the DSCR line, and none of them can be read from a statewide average. To see how far a single tax line moves coverage, FSC's DSCR and debt yield calculator changes one input at a time, the SBA DSCR calculator compares the two current SBA policy versions on the same loan, and the lender fit finder sorts a Maryland project among SBA, USDA and conventional loans. The reasons the SBA and conventional files are built differently are on SBA versus conventional feasibility studies.

How large is Maryland's demand base, and what does each figure tell a study?

Maryland's demand base is 6,265,347 residents in 2,428,843 households, 1.4 percent more people than at the April 2020 estimates base [1][7]. The growth is imported. In each of the five years to July 2025 more residents left for other states than arrived from them, and over the five years arrivals from abroad more than made up the difference [1]. Table 2 lists the state indicators and the work each one does in a Maryland study.

Table 2. Maryland demand indicators and their use in a study

Source: Census Bureau: Vintage 2025 state totals [1]; state population by single year of age [5]; 2025 state annual building permits [9]; ACS 2025 1-year tables B19013, B25003 and B25064, state and metro rows [6][7][8]. The change since 2020, the 65-and-older share, the permit total and the permit and renter shares are FSC calculations from those files.

The yearly components show how Maryland grows. Table 3 splits each year's change into net domestic migration, net international migration and a remainder, which holds births less deaths together with the Census Bureau's residual.

Table 3. Components of Maryland population change by year

Source: Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 state totals [1]. The remainder column and the five-year row are FSC calculations from that file.

Over the five years Maryland lost a net 129,734 residents to other states and gained 158,613 from abroad [1]. Domestic moves alone would have shrunk the state in every year; international arrivals and a remainder of between 10,418 and 13,473 a year offset them in every year but the one to July 2021, when Maryland lost 2,352 residents [1]. The international column is also the one that swings. It reached 47,375 in the year to July 2024 and then fell to 20,503, 43.3 percent of the prior year, and total growth dropped from 40,387 to 20,033 [1]. Domestic losses have narrowed, from 45,953 in the year to July 2022 to 12,127 in the latest year, but they have not turned positive in any year [1]. A Maryland lease-up or enrollment ramp that leans on population growth therefore says which component it is counting on. A trade area that has absorbed many arrivals from abroad is tested against a year in which that inflow fell by more than half, and a trade area that depends on newcomers from other states has to show it is the exception to a statewide outflow.

The permit file shows the kind of housing being added. Of the 13,358 units authorized in 2025, 9,345, or 70.0 percent, were single-family homes, and 3,570, or 26.7 percent, were in buildings of five or more units [9]. Those 3,570 apartment units equal 0.45 percent of the state's 793,554 renter-occupied units [9][7], so new apartment supply is thin against the stock. The state file stops at the state line, so an apartment or storage study takes its pipeline from county records. Prince George's planning staff publish each month the development review cases they accepted or approved [72], and Washington County's budget counts the permits it issues by fiscal year [70]; those are the documents a Maryland supply list is built from.

Income and rent are high statewide, a median household income of $107,700 and a median gross rent of $1,822 a month [6][8], but the metro medians spread widely around them: from $82,478 of income and $1,287 of rent in the Hagerstown metro to $131,346 and $2,168 in the Washington metro [6][8]. A Maryland projection that pairs a statewide income with a county rent mixes two markets, so the study takes both figures from the same geography and states which one it used.

Older residents are a measurable base: 18.4 percent of Marylanders were 65 or older on July 1, 2025 [5]. That is a statewide share, so a senior housing or assisted living study counts older households inside its own drive time and then turns to the certificate of need and licensing rules in the care section below, which decide what can be built before demand is even weighed.

The three largest counties hold the most people and grow the least. Montgomery County had 1,074,582 residents, Prince George's 970,374 and Baltimore County 847,650 on July 1, 2025, together 46.2 percent of the state [2][1], and since the 2020 base they changed by +1.2 percent, +0.3 percent and -0.8 percent [2]. Nearly half of Maryland therefore lives in three counties that are close to flat, and a project there argues for taking share of a stable market more often than for riding growth.

Supply comes from County Business Patterns, the Census count of establishments by industry. Table 4 gives the 2023 Maryland counts for the industries behind FSC's asset pages.

Table 4. Maryland establishments by industry, 2023

Source: Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023 state file [10].

The counts frame supply; they do not measure it. Against only 28 RV parks and campgrounds statewide in 2023 [10], a single Prince George's plan for a recreational campground with 300 camp sites, approved as an extension in October 2026 [72], is material to any campground projection nearby. Storage reads the same way: 314 self-storage lessors in 2023 [10], and in the same October report a five-building storage plan of 115,200 square feet approved in Prince George's [72]. A plan approval is not a building permit or a construction start, so a study lists it with its date and status and checks it again before closing.

The State's own tax receipts show the consumer base in dollars. Table 5 sets the Comptroller's FY2026 sales and use tax statement beside its admissions and amusement summary.

Table 5. Maryland sales and admissions tax collections, FY2026

Source: Comptroller of Maryland, Sales and Use Tax Comparative Statement FY2026 [60] and Admissions and Amusement Tax Comparative Summary FY2026 [61]. The July 2025 sales tax row is reported as zero in the file, so the 11-month total is not a full fiscal year; the twelve-month admissions figures sum the monthly rows, and the file's "Total (All Counties)" rows include the Stadium Authority.

Sales tax receipts are still rising in nominal terms: the 11 reported months of FY2026 brought in 5.9 percent more than the same months a year earlier [60], under a general rate of 6 percent [59]. January's $762,862,221.93 ran 10.8 percent above January 2025 while June's gain was 1.2 percent [60], so a retail projection that annualizes one strong month overstates its year. Admissions and amusement tax behaves differently because it is a local choice: a county may levy it by resolution and a municipality by ordinance or resolution [27], and the Comptroller's file reports collections county by county [61]. Table 8, in the metro section, shows how unevenly the $84,517,166.11 of FY2026 collections reported for the counties and Baltimore City falls across them [61], which is the county thesis again in receipts rather than in rates.

Which Maryland places have more than 50,000 residents, and how does the USDA rural test treat them?

Five Maryland places had more than 50,000 residents on July 1, 2025, and together they held only 13.7 percent of the state's population [3][1]. Table 6 lists them with their change since the 2020 base.

Table 6. Maryland places with more than 50,000 residents

Source: Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 subcounty population file sub-est2025.csv [3]. FSC computed the change, the residents added and the five-place totals.

The five places moved in opposite directions and nearly cancelled each other out. Baltimore city lost 15,732 residents since the base, and Frederick city gained 13,931, equal to 88.6 percent of that loss [3]; the five together added just 233 [3]. Frederick's 17.8 percent is the only large gain in the group, and the other three cities grew by 2.1 percent or less [3]. For a study the two ends of the table call for different arguments. In Frederick the case can rest on new residents, provided the trade area is drawn where they are arriving; in Baltimore city the case rests on capturing spending from a population that is smaller than it was in 2020.

The table matters less for what it holds than for what it leaves out. With 13.7 percent of residents inside the five places [3][1], most Marylanders, and so most trade areas, lie outside any city of more than 50,000, under a county's property tax rate, its admissions tax decision and its local licensing board. Baltimore city fits the same pattern from the other side: it is both a place and a county-level jurisdiction, listed among the Baltimore metro's counties [4] and setting its own property tax rate as each county does [21], so a study there treats the city as its county.

For USDA business programs, 7 CFR 5001.3 treats as rural only areas outside any city or town of more than 50,000 inhabitants and outside the urbanized area contiguous and adjacent to one [11]. It counts by the latest decennial census [11], will not approve an application subject to meeting the test later [11], and marks the areas that fail on the Rural Development Property Eligibility Map [11]. Table 6 is a screen, not a finding. Because so few Marylanders live inside the five places, the adjacency clause and the map decide most Maryland cases, and this page makes no eligibility finding for any site.

What does each metro of more than 250,000 people mean for a Maryland study?

Each metro means a separate case built from its Maryland counties, and for three of the four that case stops at the state line. Only the Baltimore metro lies wholly in Maryland. The Washington, Philadelphia and Hagerstown metros cross the state line, so their Maryland counties carry the State's assessment cycle and their own county rates while the metro totals blend in residents who live under other states' rules [4]. Table 7 sets the four side by side.

Table 7. Metro areas of more than 250,000 people with a Maryland county

Source: Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 CBSA estimates [4]; ACS 2025 1-year metro rows of tables B19013, B25003 and B25064 [6][7][8]. FSC computed the change since 2020, the renter shares and the Maryland shares.

The four grow at very different speeds. The Hagerstown metro grew 7.3 percent since 2020, the fastest of the four, and it is the only one with net domestic arrivals in the latest year: 4,089 of its 4,344-resident gain, or 94.1 percent [4]. The Washington metro added 50,206 residents in the year, but it lost 23,791 to domestic moves and relied on 44,804 arrivals from abroad [4]. The Baltimore metro holds 45.6 percent of all Marylanders and grew 0.3 percent since the 2020 base, and its 4,259 gain in the latest year was 21.3 percent of the state's [4][1]. Outside the four metros live 618,272 Marylanders, 9.9 percent of the state [1][4]; a project there draws on residents already in place and on visitors rather than on metro growth, and its study says which.

County-option taxes show the county logic in the collections themselves. Table 8 sets the Comptroller's FY2026 admissions and amusement collections for the eight counties in this page's evidence against their residents.

Table 8. Admissions and amusement tax collected by county, FY2026

Source: Comptroller of Maryland, Admissions and Amusement Tax Comparative Summary FY2026 [61]; Census Bureau county, CBSA and state estimates [2][4][1]. Collections sum the twelve monthly rows of the file; the statewide row leaves out the $20,605,014.97 the file reports for the Stadium Authority, which its $105,122,181.08 "Total (All Counties)" includes; FSC computed the per-resident column.

Collections per resident run from $3.22 in Frederick County to $25.91 in Baltimore City, about eight to one [61][4]. The spread mixes two things this page cannot separate, the rate each county chose and the venues inside it, and that is exactly why a venue, entertainment or recreation projection cannot borrow another county's figure. It takes the rate from the county or municipality that levies the tax [27] and checks its base against that county's collections [61]. The eight counties in Table 8 account for 83.8 percent of the collections reported for the counties and Baltimore City [61].

Baltimore-Columbia-Towson

The Baltimore metro is the one metro that is all Maryland: 2,857,781 residents in six counties and Baltimore city, up 0.3 percent since the 2020 base [4]. Table 9 lists them.

Table 9. Counties in the Baltimore metro

Source: Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 CBSA estimates [4]. FSC computed the shares.

The two largest jurisdictions both shrank. Baltimore County had 0.8 percent fewer residents in July 2025 than at the 2020 base and Baltimore city 2.7 percent fewer [2][3], while the metro as a whole grew [4], so the metro's growth sat in the other five counties. A study in Baltimore County or the city argues from a stable or shrinking population and has to show where its customers come from; a study in Howard, Anne Arundel, Harford, Carroll or Queen Anne's can make a growth case, but it documents that growth from county records rather than from the metro total.

Howard County's financial report. Howard County's FY2025 report is the most complete county tax record in this page's evidence, and it shows the State cycle and the county rate working together [69]. Table 10 takes the figures a study uses.

Table 10. Howard County tax base and county taxes, FY2025

Source: Howard County Annual Comprehensive Financial Report FY2025 [69]. FSC computed the commercial share and the growth since FY2016; the 2.5 times comparison applies the ceiling in Tax-Property section 6-302 [21].

Three points from Table 10 carry into any Howard study. First, the county states that real property is assessed every three years and personal property every year, both by the State Department of Assessments and Taxation at 100 percent of estimated fair value [69]; that is the State cycle of Table 1 seen from the county's own books, and it means a Howard parcel's county bill is its phased-in value times the county rate [18]. Second, the county sets its rate and changes it. The real property direct rate was 1.014 per $100 in FY2016 and 1.044 in FY2025, and the personal property rate rose from 2.535 to 2.610, in both years exactly 2.5 times the real rate [69], the most the statute allows [21]. An operation whose value sits mostly in equipment therefore pays $26,100 of county tax on each $1,000,000 of taxable personal property, against $10,440 on the same amount of real property [69]. Third, the base is broad: the ten largest taxpayers hold 3.01 percent of assessed value [69], and commercial property is 16.9 percent of the real property base [69]. Total assessed value rose 42.1 percent from FY2016 to FY2025 [69], and under the phase-in an increase found at inspection reaches a bill one-third a year [18], which is why a Howard projection shows the path and not one number.

The county also recognized $6,092,885 of hotel and motel tax and $3,911,628 of admission tax revenue in FY2025 [69]. The report gives receipts, not rates, so a Howard hotel or venue study asks the county for the rate in force and uses the receipts as a check on how large a share of the county's taxed market its own projection implies. The Comptroller's file shows $3,754,316.34 of Howard admissions collections in FY2026 [61]; the two figures cover different years on different bases, and a study does not read them as a growth rate.

The airport and the port. Two State-run gateways supply the metro's traveler and freight evidence. Table 11 takes their published figures.

Table 11. BWI airport and the Port of Baltimore

Source: BWI airport facts and figures page [65]; Maryland Port Administration 2025 Foreign Commerce Statistical Report [66] and economic impact study of 2023 data, published June 2024 [67].

For a hotel near the airport the useful comparison is with 2019. In 2023 BWI handled 97.1 percent of its 2019 passengers, and daily passengers were also 97.1 percent of the 2019 level [65], after a 58.5 percent fall in 2020 [65]. The airport's published series ends in 2023, so a study asks the airport for later counts before it projects room nights from traffic.

The port's figures point at freight-related property rather than at general business growth. The port handled 728,225 auto units and 848,628 tons of roll on/roll off farm and construction machinery in 2025, the latter first among US ports [66]. Bulk makes up about 74 percent of international cargo while general cargo carries 91.6 percent of the value [66], so tonnage and value tell different stories, and a warehouse, yard or logistics study near the port tests its demand against the cargo types it would actually handle. The cruise figures, 444,122 passengers and 101 homeport cruises in 2023 [67], come from a study of 2023 data published in June 2024 [67]; a hotel that counts on pre-cruise stays asks the port for the current sailing schedule rather than projecting from 2023.

Colleges and universities. Table 12 lists fall 2025 enrollment at the 15 institutions in this page's evidence, with the graduate or part-time count that shapes housing and retail demand [68].

Table 12. Fall 2025 enrollment at Maryland institutions by metro

Source: Maryland Higher Education Commission, Enrollment by Term and Year, Fall 2025 [68]. Counts are institution headcounts in credit courses, full-time and part-time.

The mix matters more than the total. Johns Hopkins is mostly a graduate institution by headcount, with 23,615 of its 29,969 students, 78.8 percent, enrolled as graduate students [68], so a housing study near it counts graduate demand separately from undergraduate demand. At the community colleges most students attend part-time, 13,153 of 19,972 at Montgomery College and 13,045 of 17,692 at the Community College of Baltimore County [68], which makes their headcounts a weak signal for student beds and a better one for nearby retail and services. The Baltimore metro's seven institutions enroll 113,406 students [68].

For each asset type the Baltimore evidence sorts this way. Hotels near BWI or the cruise terminal start from State-published traffic counts [65][67] and, in Howard County, a county lodging tax already in force [69]. Industrial and storage projects near the port can name the cargo types and volumes they would serve [66]. Apartments meet a metro renter share of 33.7 percent and a median gross rent of $1,730 [7][8], with campus demand concentrated at the larger universities [68]. Venues in Baltimore City and Anne Arundel County sit in the two jurisdictions with the highest admissions collections per resident among the Baltimore metro counties in Table 8 [61], and any project in Howard can check its property tax line against the county's own published rates [69].

Washington-Arlington-Alexandria (Maryland counties)

Maryland holds 2,524,432 of the Washington metro's 6,465,724 residents, 39.0 percent, in four counties [4]. Their study rules are Maryland's, and two of the four answer to a different SBA district office from the other two. Table 13 lists them.

Table 13. Maryland counties in the Washington metro

Source: Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 CBSA estimates [4]; SBA Baltimore and Washington Metropolitan Area district office pages [14][15]. FSC computed the shares.

The SBA split runs through the middle of this metro: Montgomery and Prince George's files go to the Washington Metropolitan Area District Office, which also serves the District of Columbia and parts of Northern Virginia, while Frederick and Charles files go to Baltimore [15][14]. Growth is uneven inside the Maryland part as well. Montgomery County grew 1.2 percent and Prince George's 0.3 percent since the 2020 base [2], while Frederick city grew 17.8 percent [3], so a Frederick County study is this metro's Maryland growth case and the two larger counties are share cases.

Montgomery County's housing research. Montgomery Planning published research on the county's housing needs and residents' preferences in November 2026 [71]. It estimates that the county could add about 50,000 households by 2050 and may need roughly 53,000 additional housing units [71]. It found that more than half of the county's renters were cost burdened in 2024, and that the typical home that year required an estimated income of about $154,000 against a county median household income of about $141,000 [71]. In its survey 71 percent of respondents preferred detached homes and 80 percent of renters were interested in buying [71].

For a Montgomery apartment study those findings pull in two directions. A gap of about $13,000 between the income a typical home requires and the median income [71] supports continued rental demand, while cost burden among more than half of renters [71] limits how fast rents can rise. A projection that assumes rents growing well ahead of incomes has to explain how already burdened tenants will pay, and one that assumes renters stay put has to answer the 80 percent who say they want to buy [71]. The household projection, about 50,000 more by 2050 [71], is a long-range planning estimate; a study uses it for direction and builds its absorption from the near-term pipeline.

Prince George's development review. Prince George's planning staff publish a monthly report of development review cases accepted or approved [72]. The October 2026 report includes a five-building storage plan of 115,200 square feet, a recreational campground of 300 camp sites approved as an extension, and a one-year validity extension for a plan of 58 multifamily dwelling units [72]. These are review decisions, not construction starts or permits, so a study that lists them as competing supply says what each one is and confirms its status before closing. The county also posts the largest admissions and amusement collections of the eight counties in Table 8, $23,066,849.85 in FY2026, or 27.3 percent of the total for the counties and Baltimore City [61], which tells a venue or entertainment study that the county already has a large taxed base of admissions.

The University of Maryland, College Park, with 42,290 students, and Bowie State University, with 5,970, sit in this part of the metro's enrollment [68], and the metro's six Maryland institutions together enroll 90,087 [68]. Frederick County's two colleges enrolled 7,504 and 1,997 students in fall 2025 [68], and its admissions collections were $975,681.41 in FY2026 [61], the lowest per resident in Table 8 [61].

By asset type, the Maryland part of the Washington metro offers the deepest housing evidence in the state, a metro renter share of 37.2 percent and a median gross rent of $2,168 [7][8] together with Montgomery's own research [71]; a dated storage and campground pipeline in Prince George's [72]; a large taxed admissions base for venues in Prince George's [61]; and campus demand around College Park [68]. Each of those studies also names its SBA office by county [14][15].

Hagerstown-Martinsburg

Washington County is Maryland's half of the Hagerstown metro: 157,731 of 315,280 residents [4]. The metro grew 7.3 percent since 2020, the fastest of the four [4], and it is the lowest-cost of the four, with a median household income of $82,478, a renter share of 27.4 percent and a median gross rent of $1,287 [6][7][8]. Washington County's FY2027 budget supplies the local evidence in Table 14 [70].

Table 14. Washington County budget evidence

Source: Washington County FY2027 Approved Operating Budget Book [70]; Comptroller of Maryland admissions and amusement summary [61].

The county budget states this page's thesis in one line. The commissioners kept the real property rate at $.928 per $100 for FY2027 [70], yet property tax is estimated to rise $15.8 million, or 9.62 percent, to $180 million because of reassessments [70]. A Washington County project's tax bill can therefore climb with no rate change at all, which is the phase-in of Table 1 seen from the levying side [18]. A study takes the rate from the budget and the value path from the parcel's own assessment notice, and it shows both.

The hotel rental tax is a guest-side charge set at 6 percent by local resolution [70]. Half of what is collected goes to the Convention and Visitors Bureau to promote tourism, and each municipality receives at least $15,000 of the revenue, shared by population [70]. If the whole $2,500,000 fund came from the 6 percent tax, it would imply about $41.7 million of taxable room receipts across the county [70], a market total against which a new hotel's projected share can be checked.

Construction activity is steady rather than rising. Permits issued held near 5,000 a year, 5,035 in FY2024 and 5,021 in FY2025 with 5,000 projected for FY2027, while inspections rose 10.1 percent to 31,577 in FY2025 [70]. The county budgets commercial building permit revenue 12.50 percent lower for FY2027, at $175,000 [70]. Neither figure is a review time, so a construction schedule in the county asks the permit office for current timing. On campus, Hagerstown Community College counted 6,536 credit students in FY2025, down from 7,104 in FY2024, and the budget carries 6,430 for FY2027 [70]; its fall 2025 headcount was 5,233 [68]. A housing or retail study that leans on the campus starts from a flat to falling base.

Half the metro's residents live across the state line [4], so the metro's growth and income figures describe a two-state market. A Washington County study uses them for context, builds its trade area from Maryland county evidence where its own tax lines are set, and files with the SBA Baltimore District Office [14]. Hotels have the best local evidence here, a dated tax rate and fund [70]; apartments meet the smallest renter pool of the four metros, 27.4 percent of occupied units [7]; and venues face the county's modest admissions base of $806,289.85 [61].

Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington (Cecil County)

Cecil County is Maryland's only county in the Philadelphia metro, with 107,131 residents, 1.7 percent of a metro of 6,329,118 [4]. The metro's figures, growth of 1.3 percent since 2020, a median household income of $95,683 and a median gross rent of $1,638 [4][6][8], describe a market that is 98.3 percent outside Maryland [4], so they frame a Cecil study without supporting it. The county's own college, Cecil Community College, enrolled 1,871 students in fall 2025, 1,272 of them part-time [68]. A Cecil project files with the SBA Baltimore District Office [14] and carries Maryland's assessment cycle and its county's rate like any other [18][21]. This page holds no Cecil County budget or tax record, so a study there collects the county's rate, its permit data and any local lodging or admissions tax directly, and it draws its trade area on the Maryland side unless it can show where cross-border customers come from.

Which Maryland rules change a study, one asset family at a time?

Most of the State rules that change a Maryland projection either hand the final decision to a county or a local board or set a cap or a clock the projection has to respect. The subsections below take the asset families in turn and name the line of the projection each rule moves.

Lodging: a State definition and a county tax

Maryland's sales and use tax title gives the lodging trade its own vocabulary. An accommodation is a right to occupy a room or lodgings as a transient guest, and a short-term rental is the temporary use of a short-term rental unit to provide accommodation to transient guests for lodging purposes in exchange for consideration [25]. A hotel, inn or short-term rental study uses those definitions to say which of its units are accommodations, and it applies the State's general sales and use tax rate of 6 percent [59] only where the Comptroller's rules put a charge in the base.

The lodging tax that a guest sees on top of the room rate is local. Washington County levies a 6 percent hotel rental tax approved by local resolution and shares it with its visitors bureau and its municipalities [70], and Howard County recognized $6,092,885 of hotel and motel tax revenue in FY2025 [69]. Neither record gives another county's rate, and a Maryland projection never carries one county's lodging rate into another county.

Table 15. Maryland lodging rules and county lodging tax evidence

Source: Tax-General Article section 11-101 [25]; Comptroller of Maryland sales and use tax guidance [59]; Washington County FY2027 budget [70]; Howard County FY2025 financial report [69]; BWI facts page [65]; Maryland Port Administration economic impact study [67]; County Business Patterns 2023 [10].

In a Maryland hotel projection the county tax belongs on the guest's folio, not in the hotel's revenue, and the study names the county, the rate and the collector for each tax it shows. For a short-term rental or extended-stay concept the statute's own words, a transient guest and lodging purposes [25], decide how each unit is described, so the study explains why each unit is or is not an accommodation. Demand starts from State-published traffic, BWI's 26.20 million passengers in 2023 and the cruise terminal's 444,122 [65][67], and from the 679 hotels and motels in the state in 2023 [10], narrowed to the properties a guest would compare. Washington County's fund gives a rare cross-check on market size [70]; elsewhere the study asks the county for its receipts.

Food and beverage: a 9 percent rate and a license class for every format

Alcohol carries its own sales and use tax rate in Maryland: 9 percent of the charge for an alcoholic beverage, with 6 percent on separately stated charges for labor, service, material or property sold in connection with it [24]. A restaurant, bar or taproom projection therefore prices its drink sales at a different rate from its other taxable sales and keeps both taxes out of revenue.

Licensing runs through the local licensing board in each county or Baltimore City, where the application is filed [49]. For a corporation or club license, at least one of three officers must be a resident of the jurisdiction or municipality when the application is filed and for the license term [50], so a sponsor based outside the county settles its officer slate before it sets an opening date. Manufacturing licenses are State classes with hard limits, set out in Table 16.

Table 16. Maryland alcohol license classes and limits

Source: Alcoholic Beverages and Cannabis Article sections 2-202 [51], 2-203 [52], 2-206 [53], 2-208 [54], 2-209 [55] and 2-210 [56]; Tax-General Article section 11-104 [24]; County Business Patterns 2023 [10].

The license class works as a revenue ceiling. A pub-brewery that projects more than 2,000 barrels of its own beer a year has projected volume its license does not allow [54], and model C below shows what that mistake does to DSCR. The micro-brewery class allows 45,000 barrels [55], but it is a different license, so a brewpub study states which class it assumes in each year of the projection and treats a change of class as a separate step. A farm brewery must sit on a farm that is actively engaged in agritourism and must use an ingredient grown on the licensed farm [56], which makes its study as much a recreation case as a beverage one. A winery that does not reach 20 acres of Maryland-grown products must show that at least 51 percent of its ingredients are Maryland-grown [53], a sourcing plan the study files with its cost of goods. A limited distillery is tied to a retail beer, wine and liquor license [52], so its feasibility depends on the restaurant or store that holds that license. With 11,930 food and drink establishments statewide in 2023 [10], the competitive set is drawn from the trade area, not the state.

Fuel and auto: register the tanks, do not count on the fund

Maryland makes tank registration a condition of supply. The owner or operator of an underground oil storage facility registers it with the Department of the Environment, and unless the facility is registered and in substantial compliance with State oil storage law, no oil may be sold to it or received by it [39]. The owner notifies the Department within 30 days after a facility is removed or its use is discontinued [39], and a discharge of oil from a land-based installation, underground tanks included, is reported to the Department immediately [40].

Table 17. Maryland underground tank and fuel rules

Source: Environment Article sections 4-410 [40], 4-411.1 [39] and 4-705 [41]; Tax-General Article section 11-104 [24]; County Business Patterns 2023 [10].

For a station purchase the registration status is the first diligence item, because an unregistered facility cannot lawfully receive fuel [39]. The Oil Contaminated Site Environmental Cleanup Fund is the second. Read as statute text, it reimburses after a deductible that starts at $7,500 for an owner or operator of six tanks or fewer and reaches $20,000 for one with more than 30, and it pays no more than $125,000 per occurrence for underground tanks [41]. The cost of replacing or retrofitting tanks and piping is never reimbursable [41], and for one class of tanks the statute allowed applications only until December 31, 2007 [41]. A study therefore assumes no fund coverage unless the Department's eligibility position for the specific tanks is in the file, and it shows the borrower's cleanup exposure both with and without it.

Marina fuel follows its own rule: dyed diesel sold by a marina is taxed at 6 percent applied to 94.5 percent of gross receipts [24], an effective 5.67 percent of receipts [24][59], which a fuel dock projection carries inside its price. A car wash study leans on the same rooftops as a station: Census counted 288 car washes and 1,089 fuel stations with convenience stores statewide in 2023 [10], against 9,345 single-family units authorized in 2025 [9], and the study locates both inside its drive time.

Housing: deposits, park residents and the residential carve-out

Maryland's landlord rules fix several figures a rental projection uses. A landlord may not impose a security deposit above the equivalent of one month's rent per dwelling unit, whatever the number of tenants [35]. A deposit of up to two months is allowed only if the tenant qualified for utility assistance, pays utilities directly to the landlord and both agree in writing [35], and a tenant charged too much may recover up to three times the extra amount plus reasonable attorney's fees [35]. The deposit receipt must state that the unused deposit comes back, with a list of charges, within 45 days after the tenancy ends [36].

Manufactured housing communities have their own title. It defines a park as property leased or held out for lease to two or more residents or prospective residents [37], lets a court award a resident damages of up to three months' rent plus fees and costs against a park owner who retaliates [38], and leaves room for county law: the State section overrides a comparable county ordinance only to the extent the ordinance gives residents less protection [38]. A community study therefore reads the county code beside the State title, because the county may protect residents more.

Two tax rules shape housing budgets. A business developing property intended primarily as single or multifamily residential property in an enterprise zone may not benefit from enterprise zone incentives, subject to the credit statute [31], so an apartment project does not count on the credit a commercial building nearby might receive. And a modular building is taxed at the general rate applied to 60 percent of its taxable price [24], an effective 3.6 percent at the 6 percent rate [24][59], which lowers the sales tax line in a modular construction budget.

Table 18. Maryland housing rules and evidence

Source: Real Property Article sections 8-203 [35], 8-203.1 [36], 8A-101 [37] and 8A-1301 [38]; Economic Development Article section 5-702 [31]; Tax-General Article section 11-104 [24]; ACS 2025 table B25003 [7]; 2025 building permits [9].

The deposit cap changes the cash side of a lease-up, not its income: deposits are held for tenants and returned, so the projection carries them as a liability and plans for returns within 45 days of each move-out [35][36]. Demand evidence is strongest in the Washington metro's Maryland counties, where renters hold 37.2 percent of occupied units across the metro and median gross rent is $2,168 [7][8], and where Montgomery's research describes the affordability squeeze in detail [71]. A Maryland apartment study builds its supply list from county planning records, such as the 58-unit Prince George's plan whose validity was extended in October 2026 [72], because the permit file used here is statewide [9].

Storage: commercial property on a commercial tax path

Self-storage and warehouse projects meet Maryland's rules through the property tax rather than a licensing chapter. As income-producing commercial property they are valued with an income method in view, their owners can be asked each year for a sworn income and expense statement due by May 15, and a facility valued above $5,000,000 on the roll can be designated for mandatory filing [20]. A storage building in a designated enterprise zone that is used in a trade or business and not for residential purposes is the kind of property the zone credit describes [23], and model B shows how that credit's schedule plays out over a loan. Supply is local: Census counted 314 self-storage lessors and 307 warehousing and storage establishments in 2023 [10], and Prince George's approved a storage plan of 115,200 square feet in October 2026 [72]. Demand comes from the 793,554 renter households and 9,345 single-family units authorized in 2025 [7][9], converted into counts for the trade area and set against the facilities already inside it.

Care: a certificate before the beds

Maryland puts its main gate before construction. A person must hold a certificate of need from the Commission before developing, operating or participating in the health care projects the statute lists [44]. A certificate is required before a new health care facility is built, developed or established, with stated exceptions, and before the bed capacity of a health care facility is changed, again with listed exceptions [44]. For hospitals the capital threshold is the lesser of 25 percent of the prior year's gross regulated charges or $50,000,000 [44].

Assisted living sits under a separate licensing scheme. An assisted living program is a residential or facility-based program that provides housing and supportive services to people who need help with activities of daily living, and nursing homes are excluded from the definition [45]. The Department of Health defines levels of assisted living, requires every program to be licensed according to its level, and requires periodic inspections that include at least one unannounced on-site inspection a year [46]. The Office of Health Care Quality issues the State licenses that authorize a facility or program to do business in Maryland [63].

Table 19. Maryland care rules

Source: Health-General Article sections 19-120 [44], 19-1801 [45] and 19-1805 [46]; Office of Health Care Quality [63]; Census state population by age [5]; County Business Patterns 2023 [10].

For a nursing or other health care facility, the certificate of need is a gating item: the study records its status and date, and it phases any plan to add beds around a new certificate rather than assuming the beds [44]. Whether a particular project falls within the statute's list is a question for the Commission, and the study files the answer. For assisted living, the licensed level frames the projection: the study models only the services and staffing that level supports and budgets for the annual unannounced inspection [46]. With 18.4 percent of Marylanders 65 or older and 351 assisted living establishments statewide [5][10], the demand case is the older households in the drive time and the licensed capacity already serving them.

Education: the county board decides, and the facility can follow

A Maryland charter school applies to the county board of the county where it will be located [47], and the board must decide within 120 days of receiving the application, or within 30 days for a restructured school [47]. A public chartering authority may not grant a charter to a private, parochial or home school, or to a school that operates fully online [47]. Most useful for a facility lender, a charter may be approved contingent on the school securing a facility, with the chartering authority giving final approval of the facility's suitability [47].

Money follows the county. A county board must disburse to a public charter school county, State and federal money commensurate with what it disburses to other public schools in the jurisdiction [48], and the Interagency Commission on School Construction distributes funds to public charter schools for capital improvements to their facilities, debt service, or rent or lease payments, if the school's most recent audit is unqualified [48].

Table 20. Maryland charter school rules and campus evidence

Source: Education Article sections 9-104 [47] and 9-109 [48]; Maryland Higher Education Commission fall 2025 enrollment [68].

For a charter facility loan, the order of approvals matters as much as the building. Because a charter can be approved before the school has secured its facility [47], the study states whether the facility in its projection is the one the chartering authority approved and dates that approval. Per-pupil revenue comes from the county's own disbursements to its other public schools [48], so a charter in Montgomery County and one in Washington County start from different revenue bases under the same statute. School construction money for debt service or rent depends on an unqualified audit [48], so the study shows coverage with and without it. For student housing, Table 12 gives the campus counts [68]; graduate-heavy and part-time-heavy institutions call for different unit mixes, or for no student beds at all.

Recreation: the county's admissions tax and the State's wetlands

Recreation projects meet a county tax on land and a State license on the water. A county may impose by resolution a tax on the gross receipts from any admissions and amusement charge in the county, and a municipality has a parallel power by ordinance or resolution [27]. The charges include the use of a recreational or sports facility and the use or rental of recreational or sports equipment [26]. A golf, fitness, water park, boat rental or event venue projection therefore names the county or municipal admissions rate that applies to its receipts, and Table 8 shows how unevenly collections fall across counties [61].

On the water, a person may not dredge or fill on State wetlands without a license [43]. State wetlands are land under the navigable waters of the State below the mean high tide that is affected by the regular rise and fall of the tide, unless it has been transferred by a valid grant, lease or patent [42]. The Department of the Environment has 45 days from receipt to tell an applicant whether a wetlands license application is complete [43].

Table 21. Maryland recreation rules and evidence

Source: Tax-General Article sections 4-101 [26], 4-102 [27] and 11-104 [24]; Comptroller admissions and amusement summary [61]; Environment Article sections 16-101 [42] and 16-202 [43]; Alcoholic Beverages and Cannabis Article section 2-210 [56]; Prince George's October 2026 development report [72]; County Business Patterns 2023 [10].

For a marina, the wetlands license sits on the critical path of any slip or dredging expansion, and the 45-day completeness notice is a first milestone, not a decision [43]; the study starts expansion revenue after the license, not after the application. Its fuel dock prices dyed diesel with the tax on 94.5 percent of receipts built in [24], and any boat or equipment rental carries the local admissions tax where the county or town levies one [26][27]. A campground study works from a thin statewide base, 28 RV parks and campgrounds in 2023 [10], so one approved 300-site plan in Prince George's [72] is material to any projection nearby, and the study treats it as a pipeline item whose status it confirms rather than as a park that will open.

Industrial and data center: exemptions with tests, credits with a schedule

Maryland's industrial incentives come with tests the study has to show the project passing. A qualified data center outside a Tier I area must invest at least $5,000,000 in qualified data center personal property and create at least five qualified positions within 3 years after it applies for the sales and use tax exemption; in a Tier I area the investment test is $2,000,000 [30]. The exemption certificate is renewed each year and may not be renewed for more than 10 consecutive years, or up to 20 if the investment reaches $250,000,000 [30]. Separately, property used directly and predominantly in a production activity on the production activity site is exempt from sales and use tax if it is not installed so that it becomes real property [28], and sales of geothermal, residential wind and solar energy equipment are exempt [29].

Real property incentives work through zones and districts. Enterprise zones exist to attract commercial development to distressed areas by encouraging capital investment and job creation through real property and income tax credits [31], and their incentives are generally available for 10 years after an area is designated [32]. The property tax credit is 80 percent of the tax on the eligible assessment in each of the first 5 taxable years, then 70, 60, 50, 40 and 30 percent in the 6th through 10th taxable years [23], for real property that is not used for residential purposes, is used in a trade or business and sits in a designated zone [23]; for qualified property in a focus area the statute states the credit as 80 percent of the tax on the eligible assessment [23]. The Department of Commerce lists the Enterprise Zone Tax Credit and the Maryland Opportunity Zone Enhancement Credits among its tax incentives [62]. Tax increment financing is the other local tool: before issuing bonds the governing body designates a development district, a sustainable community or a RISE zone by resolution [33], pledges that real property taxes in the district are divided between the original base and the increment until the bonds are paid [33], and may spend proceeds on utilities, parks and playgrounds, and improvements such as roads, parking and lighting [34].

Table 22. Maryland industrial and data center incentives

Source: Tax-General Article sections 11-210 [28], 11-230 [29] and 11-239 [30]; Tax-Property Article section 9-103 [23]; Economic Development Article sections 5-702 [31], 5-707 [32], 12-203 [33] and 12-207 [34]; Department of Commerce [62]; Maryland Port Administration [66]; County Business Patterns 2023 [10].

The two kinds of incentive land in different places in a projection. A sales tax exemption lowers the cost of equipment, a capital line: at the 6 percent general rate, the exemption on $5,000,000 of qualifying data center equipment avoids $300,000 of tax [30][59], provided the project meets the investment and job tests on time and renews its certificate every year [30]. A property tax credit lowers operating expense, and in Maryland it fades over ten years rather than stopping all at once, which model B follows year by year. Increment financing pays for public improvements around a project [34]; under the statute the district's taxes are divided between base and increment [33], not forgiven, so a study does not show increment financing as an operating saving. Freight demand evidence is concentrated in the Baltimore metro, in the port's 2025 cargo and BWI's air cargo [66][65], and Howard County's 2.610 personal property rate [69] shows how heavily an equipment-rich operation can be taxed where it is not exempt.

How do Maryland's assessment cycle, county rates and credits move DSCR?

They move it mostly through time. A Maryland property tax bill changes inside a cycle as the phase-in runs, steps up when finished construction triggers a revaluation, and moves again whenever the county resets its rate; an enterprise zone credit then fades over ten years; and the county and State taxes a business collects from customers have to stay out of its revenue altogether. Table 23 lists the Maryland lines and the way a projection treats each one.

Table 23. Maryland tax and fee lines and their place in a projection

Source: Tax-Property Article sections 6-302 [21], 8-103 [18], 8-104 [19] and 9-103 [23]; Tax-General Article sections 4-102 [27], 11-104 [24], 11-210 [28] and 11-239 [30]; Comptroller sales and use tax guidance [59]; Howard County FY2025 report [69]; Washington County FY2027 budget [70]; Environment Article section 4-705 [41].

Three illustrative models follow. Each draws its rates and rules from the sources it cites and labels every other input an assumption, and its results are outputs of the model, not observations about any Maryland property or market.

Illustrative model A: one Howard County building through a reassessment cycle. The model applies Howard County's FY2025 real property direct rate of 1.044 per $100 [69] to a phased-in value that moves as section 8-103 prescribes [18]. Its other inputs, a value that doubles at the inspection, flat income before property tax and fixed debt service, are assumptions, listed under Table 24; the rate is held constant and no other rate on the bill is modeled.

Table 24. Illustrative model A: a Howard County building through one cycle

Source: Howard County FY2025 direct real property rate [69]; phase-in rule, Tax-Property Article section 8-103 [18]. Assumptions: $6,000,000 on the roll before the inspection; $12,000,000 found at the inspection; $1,300,000 of net operating income before property tax and $1,000,000 of annual debt service in every year; the rate held at 1.044. Every other figure is arithmetic on those assumptions, not market data.

On unchanged income, coverage falls from 1.24 to 1.17 across the cycle as the county tax climbs from $62,640 to $125,280 [69][18]. A projection that copied today's bill forward would report 1.24 in cycle year 3, when the model's coverage is 1.17 [69][18]; one that loaded the full new value in year 1 would understate that year by 0.05 [69][18]. The study therefore reports the year-three figure as the coverage the loan has to live with and shows the path that leads to it. Because the model's value is above $5,000,000 on the roll, the owner may also be designated to file an income and expense statement [20], so the income the study projects is close to the figure the assessor will see. If an expansion later adds $100,000 or more of value mid-cycle, a revaluation follows in the year it is finished [19], and the study adds that step to the path.

Illustrative model B: a Washington County industrial building in an enterprise zone. The model applies Washington County's real property rate of $.928 per $100 [70] and the enterprise zone credit schedule of section 9-103, 80 percent of the tax on the eligible assessment in each of the first 5 taxable years and then 70, 60, 50, 40 and 30 percent [23]. Its other inputs, the building's assessment and eligible assessment, flat income before property tax and fixed debt service, are assumptions, listed under Table 25; the building is assumed to be qualified property in a designated zone, and only the county rate is modeled.

Table 25. Illustrative model B: the enterprise zone credit over a Washington County loan

Source: Washington County real property rate [70]; credit percentages, Tax-Property Article section 9-103 [23]. Assumptions: an assessment of $20,000,000, of which $16,000,000 is the eligible assessment; $2,000,000 of net operating income before property tax and $1,500,000 of annual debt service in every year. The gross county tax is $185,600 on the full assessment and $148,480 on the eligible assessment; every figure is arithmetic on the assumptions, not market data.

The credit is worth $965,120 over its ten years in the model [70][23]. Coverage does not fall off a cliff. It slides from 1.29 in years 1 to 5 to 1.24 in year 10 and then drops to 1.21 when the schedule ends after the 10th taxable year [70][23]. A loan longer than ten years spends most of its life at the year-11 figure, so the study reports 1.21 as the coverage the loan relies on and treats the credit as an early cushion [70][23]. Two cautions go in the file with the model. The credit reaches only qualified property, which excludes residential use [23], and a business developing primarily residential property in a zone cannot benefit from zone incentives [31]. And the model's eligible assessment is an assumption; a real file shows the eligible assessment on record for each taxable year and dates it.

Illustrative model C: a pub-brewery that outgrows its license. The model holds a Class 6 pub-brewery to its limit of 2,000 barrels a year [54] and applies the 9 percent alcoholic beverage rate to beer sales, charged on top of menu prices and remitted [24]. Its other inputs, demand above the cap, beer revenue and production cost per barrel, food and other revenue, other operating costs and debt service, are assumptions, marked as such in Table 26; sales tax on food is left out.

Table 26. Illustrative model C: a Class 6 pub-brewery held to its cap

Source: barrel limit, Alcoholic Beverages and Cannabis Article section 2-208 [54]; alcoholic beverage rate, Tax-General Article section 11-104 [24]. All other lines are FSC assumptions and arithmetic on them, not market data.

Held to its license, the model covers its debt 1.25 times; the same restaurant projected at 2,300 barrels shows 1.92 [54][24], and the whole gap comes from 300 barrels the license does not allow, worth $375,000 of margin in the model [54]. Booking the $288,000 of beer tax as income would add a further 0.51 to the licensed figure [24]. The study's answer is not a smaller number but a stated path: either the projection stays at 2,000 barrels, or it shows a move to a Class 7 micro-brewery license, with its 45,000-barrel ceiling [55], as a separate step with its own timing and cost.

Which FSC pages cover Maryland projects?

FSC has no Maryland asset pages yet, so its national studies apply, read together with the Maryland rules above. For a worked example inside the state, FSC's model study of a Talbot County marina expansion under USDA B&I applies this kind of analysis to one waterfront project.

The national studies line up with the Maryland rules this way:

• Lodging and recreation, where county hotel and admissions taxes and the State wetlands license apply: hotel, wedding venue, glamping, RV park and marina.
• Food and beverage, where the license class caps volume and alcohol carries its own rate: restaurant and brewery.
• Fuel and auto, where tank registration conditions supply: gas station, truck stop and car wash.
• Housing, under the deposit, park and enterprise zone rules: multifamily, manufactured housing community and mixed-use.
• Storage and industrial, where the income method, the zone credit and the equipment exemptions apply: self-storage, RV and boat storage, industrial, cold storage and data center.
• Care, behind the certificate of need and licensing by level: assisted living, senior housing, skilled nursing and medical office.
• Education and child care, where the county board holds the charter: charter school and daycare.
• Retail, priced against the Comptroller's receipts: retail.

Who prepares a Maryland feasibility study, and where does the appraisal license begin?

An independent consultant prepares the study, and in Maryland the engagement letter also has to place the work against an appraisal statute that reaches further than a value opinion. The difference between the two products is set out on feasibility study vs appraisal, and the pages on feasibility study vs market study and feasibility study vs business plan cover the study's other neighbors.

Maryland's definition is broad. The licensing title defines an appraisal as an analysis, conclusion or opinion about the nature, quality, utility or value of interests in or aspects of identified real estate, and the term includes a valuation appraisal, an analysis assignment and a review assignment [57]. An individual must be licensed by the State commission before providing real estate appraisal services in Maryland, apart from listed exceptions such as incidental services provided by home inspectors and environmental auditors [58]. A licensed broker's opinion of a recommended listing or purchase price falls outside the definition so long as it is not called an appraisal [57]. The Department of Labor's page for the commission states that it regulates appraisal services under Title 16 of the Business Occupations and Professions Article and the Code of Maryland Regulations [64].

The practical result is scope discipline. Because the definition reaches analysis of the utility of identified real estate [57], the engagement letter draws the line in writing: what the study concludes about, whether it contains any opinion of value, and who holds the Maryland license for any part that the statute would treat as appraisal. A lender that needs a value orders an appraisal separately. FSC's SBA and USDA consultant pages describe the program files the study supports.

For SBA loans the county decides the office: the Baltimore District Office serves Baltimore City and every county except Montgomery and Prince George's [14], and the Washington Metropolitan Area District Office serves those two [15]. For USDA business programs, 7 CFR 5001.3 directs rural area determinations to the Rural Development State Office [11].

Table 27. Who decides what in a Maryland study

Source: Tax-Property Article sections 6-302 [21], 8-103 [18], 8-104 [19], 8-105 [20], 8-407 [74], 14-502 [73] and 14-509 [22]; Howard County FY2025 report [69]; Economic Development Article section 12-203 [33]; Comptroller of Maryland [59][61]; Tax-General Article sections 4-102 [27] and 11-104 [24]; Washington County FY2027 budget [70]; Alcoholic Beverages and Cannabis Article section 4-102 [49]; Health-General Article sections 19-120 [44] and 19-1805 [46]; Office of Health Care Quality [63]; Environment Article sections 4-410 [40], 4-411.1 [39] and 16-202 [43]; Education Article sections 9-104 [47] and 9-109 [48]; Business Occupations and Professions Article section 16-301 [58] and Department of Labor [64]; SBA district office pages [14][15]; 7 CFR 5001.3 [11].

What should a Maryland feasibility study file contain?

A Maryland file holds the documents that date each assessment, rate, license and credit the projection uses, so a reviewer can see which cycle year and which county's rate were applied. Table 28 pairs each document with the Maryland rule behind it. The rest of a file is listed in FSC's feasibility study document checklist, and for a single SBA or USDA deal the SBA checklist generator and the USDA checklist generator produce a deal-specific list.

Table 28. Documents a Maryland study file should hold

Source: the rules cited in the sections above: Tax-Property Article [22][20][21][19][23][73]; Howard County FY2025 report [69]; Economic Development Article [33][34]; Tax-General Article [27][30][28]; Washington County budget [70]; Alcoholic Beverages and Cannabis Article [49][50][53][54]; Environment Article [39][40][41][43]; Health-General Article [44][46]; Education Article [47]; Real Property Article [35][36]; 7 CFR 5001.3 [11].

What drives the cost and timeline of a Maryland feasibility study?

Scope drives both, and in Maryland scope grows with the number of counties whose rates and records the study must collect and with the State and local clocks the project runs on. This page gives no fee or week figures. How FSC prices the work is explained in the 2026 feasibility study cost guide, a first estimate for one project comes from the feasibility study cost estimator, and the market vs feasibility decision tree helps decide whether a market study should come first. The Maryland drivers are these.

• Where the parcel sits in its cycle. A property whose last inspection found a large increase needs three tax years modeled, not one [18], and a project that will finish $100,000 or more of improvements also needs its revaluation year [19].
• County records gathered by hand. This page draws its county evidence from Howard County's financial report and Washington County's budget [69][70]. For any other county the study requests the rate, any hotel or admissions tax and the permit data directly, and a trade area that spans counties multiplies that work.
• Local boards with their own calendars. Alcohol licenses go to the local licensing board [49], charter applications to the county board with a 120-day decision window [47], and admissions tax rates come from the county or municipality that set them [27].
• State clocks. A certificate of need comes before construction or a change in beds [44]; a wetlands application waits up to 45 days for a completeness notice [43]; a first assessment appeal is due to the supervisor within 45 days of the notice [73], and an appeal of the supervisor's final notice to the appeal board within 30 days of that notice [74][22]; and a tank removal is reported within 30 days [39].
• Evidence that dates quickly. The port's cruise counts describe 2023 [67] and the airport's published passenger series ends in 2023 [65], so a study that relies on either updates it at the source before it projects.