


60 Seconds with Swett: The Republican Budget and Medicaid Cuts
There will be significant political interest in what happens to Medicaid funding as Republicans work to pass a budget and tax bill with their very slim majority. Touching entitlements remains politically risky, and the party is divided on whether any Medicaid cuts would be acceptable heading into an election cycle. At this stage, per-capita caps on federal Medicaid payments to states do not appear to be under serious consideration. However, even without direct federal cuts, rulemaking changes could materially affect Medicaid-dependent providers. CMS has issued a proposed rule that aims to close what it describes as a Medicaid “tax loophole” that some states have used to inflate federal... Read More »
60 Seconds with Swett: Welltower Is on a Roll
Welltower came out with its first quarter earnings on Tuesday, and surprise, surprise, it was yet another great quarter, and its share price jumped 3.5% immediately upon the news. It was the tenth consecutive quarter in which same store SHOP NOI growth exceeded 20%, at 21.7% in the first quarter. Guidance for same store NOI growth also rose by 100 basis points to a midpoint of 19.0% for FY2025. On Tuesday’s call, Welltower did mention that SHOP margins remain below pre-pandemic levels, but they may not be for long. Also, that issue currently plagues thousands of communities in this country and was prevalent in the years before COVID too. Perhaps that is why most of what we hear from... Read More »
60 Seconds with Swett: April Already Passes 50 Transactions
Tariff turmoil? Volatile and still-high interest rates? Uncertainty surrounding Medicaid spending, labor costs and HUD’s queue length? Seniors housing and care dealmakers have looked past a lot of this noise to announce 50 transactions in the first three weeks of the second quarter, putting the market on track for the busiest M&A period ever. We know we sound like a broken record, but the start of April did feel like we reached a new level of activity, and given the conversations we’ve been having in the last few weeks, the second and third quarters may only accelerate in deal volume. For some sellers, seeing through the January 2025 rate increases was enough to enter the transaction... Read More »
60 Seconds with Swett: Adapting to the 2025 M&A Market
The M&A market is slowly shifting, with increased liquidity, further stabilizing operations and some larger and higher quality deals hitting the market. Perhaps things are not moving as quickly as some want, and cap rates are not compressing enough to attract certain sellers to the market. But interest rates have been the major drag on dealmaking, values and lending, and the recent chaos around tariffs did not help. So how are dealmakers taking advantage of the current market dynamics? When does it make sense to sell a Class-A stabilized asset these days if cap rates are not where they were several years ago? And what is going on in the debt markets that potential buyers need to be... Read More »