Acquisition Market Remains Strong
Transaction volume is still running ahead of last year’s record, fueled by liquidity and low interest rates. As of yesterday, seniors housing and care acquisition volume was still running ahead of last year’s record-setting pace. We are well over 300 transactions so far in 2019, and September is already looking to beat last year’s September, with several days to go. The question still remains, how long can this go on? The simple answer is as long as liquidity in the market remains at current levels. And that liquidity will remain as long as returns stay higher than alternative investments. They have, and low interest rates have not hurt. The other question is, when will the slow... Read More »
2019 NIC Takeaways
The record crowd of 3,300 attendees were mostly positive about the market despite the headwinds. After spending four days last week in Chicago with my 3,300 best friends, my one big takeaway is the continued positivity that brought a record crowd to NIC. Not everyone was positive, but more capital keeps coming into the sector for a reason, even though returns have softened. One topic that kept on coming up was that new development is beginning to slow. But what many people forget is that a national statistic has little meaning for a particular market. Some areas are slowing down because they got way overbuilt, but others keep on chugging along, like Sarasota, Florida, despite the... Read More »
Welcome To NIC
As more than 3,000 people descend on NIC in Chicago this week, we hope talk will also focus on operations and ideas and not just investments. Good luck with that one. If you can believe it, this is my 29th consecutive Fall NIC Conference. There may be 15 of us who can claim that. But boy has it changed from the days they were trying to educate capital so money would be invested in senior living. Today, there is certainly no shortage of capital. While NIC is known as a deal-making conference, there should be a lot of other things on attendees’ minds. Are they talking about affordable senior living? What about penetration rates, which seem to have stalled in the 10% to 11% range? We assume... Read More »
Growing Old in America
Instead of nursing facilities, a New York Times article goes after assisted living. As many of you are aware by now, there was a not too complimentary op-ed article last Sunday in the New York Times called “How Not to Grow Old in America.” The bottom line, according to the author, is that assisted living is not the answer for our elderly. One can argue about some statements and characterizations in the article, as ASHA did in a response to the paper, but at least one central theme is something I have been saying for a while. And that is, we are putting too much money into the physical plant and not enough into staffing and training. It’s kind of like golf, where you drive for show and putt... Read More »
The Labor Problem and Culture
As we approach Labor Day, we really need to work on solving the industry’s labor problems. I know it’s a bit of a cliché to talk about labor just before Labor Day, but what the Hell. To me, this is the most pressing issue for the entire seniors housing and care industry. Not only because labor represents well more than half of your costs, but because your employees are so critical in their interaction with your customers, both the residents and the family members. And to your success. But you know all this. Why is it that every time I walk into a hotel, from the bellhop to the desk clerk to the housekeeper walking down the hall, they all greet me with a smile and a hello? Are they... Read More »Schedule a demo
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