• 60-ish Seconds with Steve Monroe: So, What’s Goin’ On?

    While I did not make it to the NIC Spring Conference last week, my colleagues Ben and Steph were there to meet and greet the record crowd. The crowd included a lot of smiling faces. Some takeaways included the expectation that liquidity is returning and that we will see bigger deals this year. Also, lenders will be putting out more cash in 2025... Read More »
  • Brookdale Bucking Historical Trend

    Brookdale Senior Living announced its February occupancy results, and it was better than we expected. Month-end occupancy has now increased for three straight months since November. At the end of February, occupancy was 80.8%, marking the seventh straight month that it has topped 80%, and up 20 basis points from the end of January. As you know,... Read More »
  • CareTrust’s Recommended Cash Acquisition of Care REIT by Bidco

    CareTrust REIT reached an agreement with the board of directors of Care REIT plc on the terms of a recommended cash offer to be made for the acquisition of Care REIT by CR United Bidco Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CareTrust. CareTrust has agreed to pay 108 pence in cash per ordinary share of Care REIT. Based on the Sterling to Dollar... Read More »
  • Walker & Dunlop Handles California Closing

    In February, Tony Cassie, Brant Nelson and Sam Thompson of Walker & Dunlop facilitated the sale of a seniors housing community in Concord, California. The seller, a joint venture between a local private investor group and Agemark Senior Living, purchased the community in 2018 and conducted extensive renovations while turning around... Read More »
  • Joint Venture Acquires in Georgia

    Senior Living Investment Brokerage handled the sale of a seniors housing community in Dallas, Georgia. The seller was the existing lender that had foreclosed on the asset. Built in 2013, the community comprises 88 assisted living and memory care units, totaling 66,961 square feet across 3.88 acres. It was 65% occupied at the time of sale, and the... Read More »
60ish Seconds with Steve Monroe: The Coming Seniors Housing Shortage?

60ish Seconds with Steve Monroe: The Coming Seniors Housing Shortage?

The Wall Street Journal just came out with a story about the coming seniors housing shortage. Unfortunately, it started with misinformation, when it stated that “seniors housing has been one of the biggest disappointments for commercial real estate investors.” In some periods yes, but in other periods not at all, when it has had outsized returns and beat the other sectors. It is all about context, and the writer should have known better. The story may, however, generate some investment interest. We are glad that occupancy has reached pre-pandemic levels, but we really need to get to 2017 levels to be happy. Remember, back in October 2020 we did the analysis and concluded it would take at... Read More »
Omega Healthcare Investors Continues Improvement

Omega Healthcare Investors Continues Improvement

It has been a slog for owners of nursing homes, but Omega Healthcare Investors continues to improve from the COVID messes it encountered. Major tenant LaVie, which entered into bankruptcy protection last June, paid its full monthly rent of $3.0 million from June 2014 through January 2025. And Maplewood, which ran into some serious problems, paid $4.5 million in rent in January and $12.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2024.  The REIT is also growing, having completed $340 million in new investments in the fourth quarter, and $939 million for the full year. The fourth quarter investments included $179 million in real estate acquisitions and $162 million in new loans. The new loans... Read More »
60 Seconds with Swett: Rising Treasuries and Senior Care M&A

60 Seconds with Swett: Rising Treasuries and Senior Care M&A

Momentum in the M&A market has continued into 2025, and there is general optimism that the new Administration that descended on Washington this week will be good for the business environment. Although there is some uncertainty around what, if any, tariffs are enacted and whether their effect on prices would potentially be blunted by falling energy costs and efficiency efforts, assuming “drill baby drill” and “DOGE” have a near-immediate effect. And we don’t know about the scale of the deportations and its impact on wages. However, if M&A activity started to take off last year due to the expectation of lower interest rates, then what effect will the 10-Year Treasury rate shooting... Read More »
Seniors Housing Occupancy Hits New Post-Pandemic High

Seniors Housing Occupancy Hits New Post-Pandemic High

NIC released its latest seniors housing occupancy update for the 31 NIC Map Primary Markets, and fourth quarter 2024 census has hit another post-pandemic occupancy high. Overall seniors housing occupancy rose to 87.2%, up 70 basis points from 86.5% in the third quarter. Separated out by property type, majority-independent living properties were 88.6% occupied in Q4, and majority-assisted living properties were 85.7% occupied. While the Primary markets averaged 87.2%, the 99 Primary and Secondary markets combined averaged 87.7% and the remaining 41 markets to round out the 140 total markets that NIC tracks averaged 88.5%. Overall, occupancy was 87.8% for all 140 markets. The last time... Read More »
Omega Healthcare Investors Continues Improvement

Brookdale’s December 2024 Occupancy Drops

As we are now in full swing of the flu (and COVID) season, it is normal to expect that occupancy levels nationwide would decline slightly even though the seniors housing industry continues on its operational upswing. This is exactly what happened at Brookdale Senior Living. Consolidated weighted average occupancy in December declined sequentially by 20 basis points to 79.3%. This compares with 79.2% in September. In slightly better news, occupancy at the end of December was 80.5%, up 10 basis points from November, but still down 30 basis points from October and matching September’s level. However, Brookdale has now posted five straight months of month-end census above 80%, and barring any... Read More »
60ish Seconds with Steve Monroe: The Coming Seniors Housing Shortage?

60 Seconds with Steve Monroe: First off, Happy New Year Everyone.

I suspect many of you think I am going to talk about the record setting M&A year in 2024 for long-term care, but I believe Ben has fully covered that and will continue to do so in the coming weeks as the stats are finalized. Plus, he now knows more than I do on the topic. No. I am going to talk about a book I just read, called The Big 100 by William Kole. All we have heard about for years, even decades, is the growth in the 80+ and 85+ population and what it will do for the seniors housing industry. This book is about the 100+ population, called centenarians, and super-centenarians, those who have attained 110 years and older. The centenarian group is the fastest growing age cohort,... Read More »