More Good News from Welltower and Ventas
Census is on the rise at the SHOP portfolios of the biggest healthcare REITs. After more than a year of mostly depressing news, it is nice to see that more good news keeps on coming. With a year of canceled earnings forecasts by most public companies and REITs, Welltower announced that it raised the low end of its second quarter earnings per share estimate by nearly 10%, and its normalized FFO by just over 4%. Now that’s some good news! In addition, they had forecast a 130-basis point increase in their SHOP portfolio for the full second quarter, and by June 4th they had already reached 120 basis points. Spot occupancy is now 150 basis points higher than the pandemic low. Ventas is also... Read More »
What A Feeling!
One big benefit of the country opening up is in-person conferences. It does feel good. Last week, I attended my first conference, in person, since March of 2020. And boy did it feel great! Shaking hands again, hugging people I haven’t seen in person in 15 months, or more, was like a celebration for everyone there. All because we were vaccinated. Thank you, Senior Living 100. I was invited to moderate a panel on, what else, the M&A market. Two weeks earlier, I was a panelist at their sister conference, The LTC 100, but I was virtual, as was one other panelist in my session, and it just was not the same. My two takeaways were that people are pretty optimistic about the comeback for... Read More »
The 55+ Market Builds Momentum
Coming out of the pandemic, investors are enamored with the 55+ or active adult market, but we will see if that enthusiasm turns into overexuberance. Perhaps the brightest star in seniors housing coming out of the pandemic has been the active adult market, and investors took notice. Census stayed strong relative to the other sectors, and owners tout their lower average move-in age, more approachable rents for residents, lower labor costs and higher operating margins. As a percentage of seniors housing deals announced, according to our deal database, active adult has grown its share from a paltry 2% in 2019 to 6.4% in 2020 and 8.2% so far in 2021. Plenty of firms have also announced... Read More »
Is Connecticut The Future For Wage Hikes?
In order to avert a strike by unionized nursing home workers, a deal is being struck with the state that will send hourly rates soaring. In order to avoid a union strike at dozens of Connecticut nursing facilities, the Governor stepped in to help the two sides reach a deal. And what a deal for employees. Most hourly workers will have a pay raise set at a minimum of $20 per hour. CNAs will be increased from a $12 to $15 range to $20 per hour, while LPNs will have a minimum of $30 per hour. There are also increases in pension contributions and health and wellness programs. Most of the money will come from the state, with an extra $47.3 million in 2021 and $121.1 million in 2022, all going... Read More »