• Sabra’s Q4 Deals Push 2025 New Investments to $450 Million

    Sabra Health Care REIT released its fourth quarter results. On a year-over-year basis, same-store cash NOI increased 12.6% for the fourth quarter of 2025, while the 2025 quarterly year-over-year average increase was 15.0%, inclusive of the stabilized facilities formerly operated by Holiday Retirement.  Its Q4 acquisitions brought the... Read More »
  • CareTrust Closes 2025 with 169 New Property Investments

    CareTrust REIT came out with its fourth quarter and full-year 2025 earnings and is continuing on its growth trajectory. In Q4, the REIT added 19 properties to its portfolio, comprising 14 triple-net leased skilled nursing facilities, two triple-net leased seniors housing communities and three SHOP communities, all totaling $561.5 million in... Read More »
  • Separate Sellers Divest in Florida

    Berkadia announced two seniors housing closings, both involving communities in the Sunshine State. First, Berkadia represented a Maryland-based private equity investment firm in its divestment of a 130-unit independent living, assisted living and memory care community in the Jacksonville, Florida MSA. The asset was built in 2015. Ross Sanders,... Read More »
  • Idaho IL/AL Community Receives HUD Financing

    Berkadia secured $27.5 million in financing for a seniors housing community in Idaho. The asset comprises 191 independent living and assisted living units, and was 97% occupied at the time of closing. Bianca Andujo and Steve Muth closed the financing through HUD’s 232/223(f) program for a first-time Berkadia client based in Tennessee. The loan... Read More »
  • Welltower Releases Strong Results, Again

    Welltower announced its fourth quarter and full-year 2025 results, which reflected a strong year, as anticipated. Investors seemed to agree, with shares rising to an intraday high of 5.9% above the prior close the day following the release, before finishing up 3.5%.  In the fourth quarter, the REIT saw 400 basis points of average occupancy... Read More »
The REIT Recovery

The REIT Recovery

Back in mid-February, it looked as if the world of healthcare REITs had collapsed, with no end in sight. Almost every healthcare REIT hit a new low in a span of a few days, but it has been a vastly different story in the six months since then. The average healthcare REIT stock has jumped in price by about 50% since mid-February, with a range between 27% (Care Capital Properties) and 78% (Sabra Health Care REIT). While that means the higher-yielding REITs have dropped down from double-digit yields, the range of dividend yields is still a healthy range of 4.1% to 8.5% (at least for investors). Price pressure will certainly pop up again if the Fed does increase rates next month, but no one is... Read More »
No Summer Vacation From Deal Flow

No Summer Vacation From Deal Flow

August used to be the month for vacations, but for some, not this year. August is supposed to be a sleepy month. But as soon as I left on a summer vacation, the biggest deal of the year was announced, and we had a series of uneven earnings reports from the few remaining public companies. The large acquisition by Welltower was a bit of a surprise because we thought that deal had died late last year. And it did, a few times. And with a sub-6% in-place cap rate with occupancy for the portfolio so low, Welltower is obviously counting on a change in management to spruce up the cash flow. Great locations yes, but we thought the Big Three were taking a break from the high-priced portfolios. I... Read More »

King Cash

When it comes to value, it all comes down to cash flow. For the fourth year in a row, according to the 21st Edition of The Senior Care Acquisition Report, there has been a record level of net operating income per bed purchased in the skilled nursing market. This has been the primary driver of the steady rise in the average price per bed since 2011. At the last market peak in 2007, the average NOI per bed sold was $6,700 and the average price per bed was $55,200. From 2007 until 2015, the average NOI grew to $9,600 per bed, for an increase of 43%, while the average price per bed increased to $85,900, representing a 55% increase. Most nursing facilities have been trying to increase their... Read More »
No Summer Vacation From Deal Flow

Valuations Remain High Across Senior Care Spectrum

Average prices for the four quarters ended June 30 dipped a little but most remain higher than calendar year 2015. Cap rates are slowly rising. Earlier this month, we reported that the seniors housing and care M&A market, based on the number of transactions announced in the second quarter, as well as the first six months of 2016, was ahead of last year, but not by a large margin. It was the dollar amount of those transactions, however, that has declined because of the dearth of the large sales. Now we have come out with our rolling four quarters data, and the results are not surprising. The conclusion is that based on valuations, the market remains relatively strong. In the skilled... Read More »

Lower Expenses, Higher Prices

One would assume that as a skilled nursing facility’s profitability increased, so should its price. And that was indeed the case in 2015, with a perfect correlation between the average price per bed and the expense rate. Facilities with an expense ratio of 90% and over sold in 2015 for an average of $46,000 per bed, while those with expense ratios between 85% and 89% sold for $75,000 per bed on average. The high end of the market, meaning those facilities with expense ratios under 85%, not surprisingly sold for the highest price, averaging $128,100 per bed in 2015. Clearly, well-operating skilled nursing facilities are very attractive to investors in search of a high return, at least when... Read More »