• 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... Read More »
  • Sonida Senior Living Continues Upward Trend

    We are at the end of the first quarter 2025 earning roll call, and Sonida Senior Living posted another solid quarter. Weighted average occupancy for its same-community portfolio (56 communities) increased by 100 basis points year over year to 86.8%, which is at the top end of many of its competitors. In addition, same-community RevPOR increased... Read More »
  • Regional Owner/Operator Purchases Turnaround SNF

    Evans Senior Investments was engaged by a regional owner in a partnership with the University of Michigan Health-West Hospital to facilitate the sale of a skilled nursing facility in Wyoming, Michigan. Opened nearly 10 years ago, Healthbridge Post Acute comprises 65 beds and was experiencing operational challenges, including an annual net... Read More »
  • Family Owner Divests CCRC to Not-For-Profit

    Senwell Senior Investment Advisors sold a family-owned/operated CCRC in Maumee, Ohio, to a not-for-profit organization. The community had been in the seller’s family for 75 years, but they are divesting to enter retirement. Established in 1949, Elizabeth Scott Community spans 51 acres and offers independent living, assisted living, memory care... Read More »
  • HUD-Backed Seniors Housing Community Opens on Long Island

    A HUD-financed seniors housing project has celebrated its grand opening in Bay Shore, New York. Netherbay at Bay Shore is a state-of-the-art assisted living/memory care community located at the historic Gulden family’s summer homestead on Long Island. It features 72 units and is operated by Meridian Senior Living. Greystone’s Lisa Fischman had... Read More »
60 Seconds with Swett: 2023 Deal Volume at 2019 Levels

60 Seconds with Swett: 2023 Deal Volume at 2019 Levels

Dealmakers have a lot to be frustrated with in the M&A market right now, with valuations low, deal processes taking longer than ever, scarcity in the debt markets and other headwinds making their impact. But despite it all, deal volume was actually historically healthy in the third quarter of 2023.  There were 115 publicly announced transactions in the quarter. That is down from the 120 deals made public in Q2:23 and the 140 from last year’s third quarter. But the average deals per quarter for 2023 at 115 is equal to the average deals per quarter in 2019, a time of cheap and abundant capital and before anyone knew what COVID-19 was. Plus, on an annualized basis, Q3’s total would... Read More »
TJM Properties Re-enters Senior Living Sector

TJM Properties Re-enters Senior Living Sector

In 2013, Clearwater, Florida-based TJM Properties sold 15 of its 19 senior living communities to Fortress Investment Group/Holiday Retirement for $220 million, effectively exiting the sector to focus on the hotel industry and its remaining senior living communities. However, TJM has recently re-invested in the sector through the acquisition of five separate senior living communities in Florida in 2023. Interestly, these five communities were part of the 15-community portfolio that the company had previously divested. TJM initiated its return to the sector in February with the purchase of Bayside Terrace, a 162-bed senior living community in Pinellas Park, Florida. The acquisition was... Read More »
60 Seconds with Swett: New NORC Study Great for Senior Care PR

60 Seconds with Swett: New NORC Study Great for Senior Care PR

The seniors housing and care market is fighting an often uphill battle to fix its public perception, and providers got a significant tool in their marketing arsenal when NORC at the University of Chicago released a study on how frailty levels among seniors ultimately decline after their moving into seniors housing or skilled nursing properties. NIC funded the study through a grant, and it will certainly be highlighted heavily throughout the upcoming Fall conference, and for good reason.  In a review of Medicare claims of residents from more than 14,000 senior living properties and using a frailty index developed by Harvard University that measures rates of chronic conditions, acute... Read More »
Staffing Regs May Cost 60% More Than CMS Suggested

Staffing Regs May Cost 60% More Than CMS Suggested

Following up on CMS’s initial estimate that the Minimum Staffing Mandate would cost around $4 billion for skilled nursing facilities (and $40.6 billion over the first 10 years), CliftonLarsonAllen (CLA) released a competing study that put that cost nearly 60% higher, at around $6.8 billion. The American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living’s President and CEO Mark Parkinson quickly responded to the results (in advance of them being released), saying, “What CLA’s analysis confirms is that this proposed rule is deeply flawed, and the Biden Administration has woefully underestimated the feasibility and cost of this unfunded mandate.” The proposed rule from CMS mandates... Read More »
Financing Package Secured for New D.C. Development

Financing Package Secured for New D.C. Development

A new affordable seniors housing development is going up in Washington, D.C. with the help of financing provided by a variety of capital sources. Urban Atlantic Development is building the 93-unit community, which is located on the campus of the 60-bed Lisner-Louise-Dickson-Hurt Home, one of the oldest skilled nursing facilities in the District that is scheduled to be renovated in the next year.  The project received $69 million of financing through DC Department of Housing and Community Development’s Housing Production Trust Fund, federal and state low-income housing tax credits, and District of Columbia Housing Finance Administration bonds, including equity provided by Boston... Read More »
Diversified Healthcare Trust Still Has Problems

Diversified Healthcare Trust Still Has Problems

One thing that we still don’t understand about Diversified Healthcare Trust is why they seem to like making comparisons to 2019, whether year-to-date comparisons or, in the case of August 2023, comparing to August 2019. Are they trying to make shareholders feel bad, or are they trying to shame their providers, primarily Five Star/Aleris? Very, very few companies have come close to meeting 2019’s results, and when they do it is with census, not NOI or margins. For the month of August 2023, total SHOP occupancy was 79.3%, up 30 basis points from July and up 240 basis points since January. These increases seem similar to the industry at large. Net operating income declined slightly in August,... Read More »