It has certainly been a busy year in the M&A market, with transaction volume on pace to top last year’s, according to The Senior Care Acquisition Report. Despite all the headwinds and headline issues, buyers are still very active, and in many cases paying top dollar for the assets they want.

The independent living market remains the strongest, with the average price per unit rising to $241,300 for the 12 months ended June 30, 2018, or 5% higher than in calendar year 2017. The average cap rate was 7.2%.

The assisted living market, where all the excess development has been, dropped by 5% to $209,100 per unit for the 12 months ended June 30, compared with last year. The average cap rate rose 20 basis points to 7.8%.

Moving to skilled nursing, per-bed prices keep declining a little, with the current average coming in at $78,900 per bed, or 3% below 2017’s average. The average SNF cap rate, however, barely budged at 12.55%, compared with 12.3% last year. The spread between debt costs and cap rates still remains quite wide in this sector, providing investors with some cushion. At least for now.