• 60 Seconds with Swett: Senior Care’s PR Problem

    Recently, we have seen stories circulating about the connection between REIT ownership and the way skilled nursing facilities provide care, stemming from a study written by the nonprofit journalism outlet KFF Health News. We’ve seen this before, headlines like “real estate investors profit while patients suffer,” usually with graphic cases of... Read More »
  • Blueprint Sets Pricing Record in New York State

    Blueprint advised a repeat private equity client in a record-setting sale of two standalone memory care communities in high barrier-to-entry submarkets in New York State. Combining for 104 units, these assets were purpose-built in the late 1990s and were stabilized at the time of the deal. Not only that, they were generating cash flow in excess... Read More »
  • CareTrust Keeps Its Foot on the Gas

    CareTrust REIT has deployed nearly $1 billion in closed transactions so far this year, after closing around $1.8 billion in investment activity in 2025, and its pipeline includes $450 million of near-term, actionable opportunities, excluding larger portfolio transactions. The REIT announced that it closed a few separate transactions in mid-April,... Read More »
  • VIUM Capital Announces Slew of HUD Closings

    VIUM Capital closed four HUD 232/223(f) financings in March totaling more than $63 million across a mix of skilled nursing and seniors housing communities. Two of the financings involved skilled nursing facilities in Oklahoma totaling 176 beds. The assets were originally acquired as part of a larger portfolio and refinanced following a... Read More »
  • Lument Secures HUD Express Lane Transaction

    Lument closed a refinance through HUD’s Express Lane for a 120-unit seniors housing community in Lincoln, Nebraska. Built in 2017, Pemberly Place Senior Living features 132 licensed beds and offers independent living, assisted living and memory care services. It also has an on-site medical clinic to offer a range of other healthcare services. The... Read More »
60 Seconds with Swett: SNFs Get a Boost from CMS

60 Seconds with Swett: SNFs Get a Boost from CMS

Support for the skilled nursing sector continues to flow from the government, both state and federal, and CMS finalized its FY2026 SNF Prospective Payment System rate increase of 3.2%, based on the final SNF market basket increase of 3.3% plus a 0.6% market basket forecast error adjustment and a negative 0.7% productivity adjustment, amounting to an increase in SNF PPS payments of $1.16 billion compared with FY2025. That is down from the 4.2% increase in reimbursement from the previous fiscal year but up from CMS’s initial proposed increase of 2.8%, announced back in April. And it comes after numerous states have already started to reconcile their Medicaid rates more closely with the... Read More »
60 Seconds with Swett: Welltower Continues To Climb

60 Seconds with Swett: Welltower Continues To Climb

The Welltower juggernaut just keeps on rolling, as another great earnings report sent shares up by more than 4.7% from their previous close to a new record high of $165.87 as of this filming. Its market cap pushed well beyond $100 billion, solidifying the REIT’s position as our industry’s first $100 billion dollar company. The board of directors may have also surprised a few by declaring a cash dividend for the second quarter of $0.74 per share, or a 10.4% increase from the prior quarter. The REIT is still sitting on approximately $9.5 billion of available liquidity too, including $4.5 billion of available cash and restricted cash plus full capacity under its $5 billion line of credit. So... Read More »
60 Seconds with Steve Monroe: What Do People Really Think?

60 Seconds with Steve Monroe: What Do People Really Think?

In our Second Quarter 2025 investment webinar, moderator Ben Swett asked our audience of a few hundred what they thought about several important topics. Overwhelmingly, 82% of the attendees indicated they would rather buy than build in today’s market, which was surprising given two facts. One, the current inventory is aging and showing it, and two, with very little new development, when the new ones do open, they will have a commanding market presence and should be in high demand. On the labor front, 48% of the attendees thought scarcity of labor would be the most pressing issue moving forward, with 24% believing it will be the cost of labor. It was admitted, however, that scarcity will... Read More »
60 Seconds with Steve Monroe: What Do People Really Think?

60 Seconds with Steve Monroe: Brookdale Senior Living, What’s Next?

So, the big vote occurred last week, and shareholders of Brookdale Senior Living have spoken. We are sure that the recent increases in occupancy convinced some shareholders to stick with management and its “plan.” But the nominees from activist shareholder Ortelius Advisors were not off-the-wall candidates. It was an excellent group, and despite what Brookdale stated, again and again, they would have provided a new perspective and a lot of expertise. The current and temporary CEO could have learned from several of them, specifically Steven Vick, Steven Insoft and Lori Whitman. Oh well, a lost opportunity for many of the shareholders. Not to mention other members of the management team, the... Read More »
60 Seconds with Swett: SNFs Get a Boost from CMS

60 Seconds with Swett: The Great Debates of Senior Care

Next week for our Second Quarter Investor Call, sponsored by Ziegler, we’ll be trying something different that is sure to be both entertaining and useful for our audience of operators, investors, brokers, lenders and everyone else. We’ll be tackling The Great Debates of Senior Care, covering some of the most important issues facing the industry. Like will we see a shortage of seniors housing units by 2030, or will consumer preferences and affordability limit future demand? Are cap rates currently too low and aren’t covering operating risk appropriately? Should you build or buy right now? What has been the most transformational new technology in seniors housing operations? And others. There... Read More »
60 Seconds with Swett: Welltower Continues To Climb

60 Seconds with Swett: M&A Activity Tops 350 Deals in H1:25

In the second quarter of 2025, there were 176 publicly announced transactions, a preliminary number that is almost certain to increase in the weeks ahead. That brings our total for the first half of the year to 355 deals, or 710 on an annualized basis. Considering we finished 2024 with 716 total deals, which was a record by far, we are in a good place for deal activity. After a slow May with 47 deals, we wondered if we would even have a chance of breaking 700 transactions for the year. But June bounced back with 64 deals, including some large portfolio deals. Looking at the second quarter, however, trouble may be brewing. Breaking out U.S. M&A activity, 2024 finished with 593 deals in... Read More »