No. A geography must meet specific criteria to qualify as an Investment Area.
An Investment Area is a U.S. geography that meets at least one of the following economic distress criteria:
- Poverty rate greater than 20%;
- Median Family Income (MFI) at or below 80% of specific benchmarks (12 CFR 1805.201(b)(3)(ii)(D)(2)(i-ii);
- Unemployment rate 1.5 times the national average;
- County population loss of greater than or equal to 10% between the two most recent census periods (for metro areas) or greater than or equal to 5% over the last five years (for non-metro areas);
- Entirely located within an Empowerment Zone or Enterprise Community, as designated under section 1391 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.
There are three categories of Investment Area Target Market components: a) Prequalified Investment Area, b) Customized Investment Area, and c) Non-Metropolitan (Non-Metro) Customized Investment Area, which can be composed of either census tracts or county-level geographic units.
Investment Area – Prequalified
A Prequalified Investment Area is a geography-based Target Market where each individual census tract has already been “qualified” by the CDFI Fund as meeting at least one economic distress criterion.
This type is available for any organization, regardless of whether it operates locally or nationally, and is strictly limited to census tracts—not counties, parishes, or states.
It is designed to capture eligible financing activity directed to these pre-approved tracts across the United States and its territories.
Investment Area – Customized
A Customized Investment Area (CIA) is another geography-based Target Market type. Unlike Prequalified Investment Areas, CIAs may include a mix of census tracts—some that meet the economic distress criteria and some that do not.
To qualify as a CIA:
- The geography must be comprised of contiguous census tracts.
- At least 85% of the population within that geography must reside in qualified census tracts.
It is also important to note that a CIA may include a mix of Metropolitan and Non-Metropolitan tracts.
The CDFI Fund’s mapping tool, CIMS, can be used to validate CIAs.
When a CIA is designated as a Target Market, only financing activity within its defined boundaries may count toward that Target Market component. Additional financing activity requirements must be met to include CIAs in the 60% Target Market Activity Test—we will review those details in the next section.
Investment Area – Non-Metro Customized
A Non-Metro Customized Investment Area (NM-CIA) is a Target Market geography made up entirely of either contiguous census tracts or contiguous counties/parishes.
Key requirements include:
- All geographic units must be contiguous census tracts or counties.
- At least 85% of the population within the geography must reside in qualified census tracts—even if the geography is composed of counties or parishes.
- All units—whether census tracts, counties, or parishes—must be designated as Non-Metropolitan, as defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). These are areas not qualifying as a Metropolitan Statistical Area (i.e., lacking an urbanized core of 50,000+ people and its integrated adjacent areas).
As with CIAs, only financing activity within the NM-CIA boundaries may be counted towards the Target Market activity thresholds.
The TLR’s “Designated Target Market Type” data field has two different answer choices for NM-CIAs. The answer choices are either “IA – Non-Metro Customized” or “IA – Non-Metro counties/parishes.” Applicants must choose the correct response for the Target Market type that they are seeking approval, including demonstrated Accountability and appropriate Target Market assessment methodology.