The headwinds facing skilled nursing and assisted living have finally had their impact on acquisition values.
We are obviously not in good times right now, but it is also not as bad as it sometimes appears. The mood is cautious for most, but hopeful for many, as occupancy and labor continue to be the problem issues facing the entire industry.
What I don’t like, however, is when news reports come out saying that 50% of SNFs nationally lose money. What they fail to say is that this is after depreciation, amortization, interest and lease expense. Before these costs, the vast majority of nursing facilities are still making money, just not as much as in the past.
It looks like 2018 was finally the year that buyers pulled back a bit from the roaring middle years of this decade. Preliminarily, it looks like skilled nursing average prices dipped again last year, after peaking in 2016 at $99,200 per bed. And after three straight years of increases, the average seniors housing price per unit fell in 2018, weighted mostly by a decline in average assisted living prices. The IL market held up better than any other sector.
If you want to get the sneak preview of our annual seniors housing and care acquisition data, join me and our panel for our annual acquisition market webinar on February 14. See you then.
