Some Good News For A Change
There has not been much good news out there, whether on the financing front, the deal volume front, or the census front. But some operators are actually kicking some butt these days, specifically Bloom Senior Living. When the pandemic began, this small operator had an average 83% occupancy across its portfolio of independent living, assisted living and memory care units. One year later it had plunged by 1,600 basis points to 67% and bottomed out in March 2021, like so many other providers. Just 12 months later, however, and not like many others, it had gained back 1,300 basis points to reach 80% in March 2022. Not quite to pre-COVID levels, but certainly a lot better than many other... Read More »Industry Leader Passes Away
I was saddened to learn that my friend George Chapman has just passed away. I had known George since the 1980s when he was working under Bruce Thompson, the co-founder and CEO of Health Care REIT (now Welltower). We started with a very friendly relationship when Bruce found out that he and I both went to the same Connecticut prep school. Bruce never let it drop, and George continued on with the teasing over the years. Back then, I never saw one without the other. Not many people know that Health Care REIT started as the Health Care Fund, and then changed its tax status to a REIT. It was the first healthcare-focused, and really long-term care focused, REIT in existence. And this was when... Read More »
Brookdale Senior Living Census Drops
As you may remember, in October 2020 we did a comprehensive study of seniors housing occupancy for the 10 years leading up to the pandemic. What we found surprised us in many ways. We used assisted living occupancy as a proxy for the entire seniors housing market, mostly because it is the largest segment, using the NIC MAP census numbers. What we found was that for the 11 years prior to the pandemic, occupancy had never increased in the first quarter of any year. In the first quarter of 2022, however, Brookdale Senior Living beat those odds by posting a 50-basis point increase in month-end occupancy after dropping 30 basis points in January. Weighted average occupancy for that quarter was... Read More »
Biden Administration Wants More SNF Transparency
The Biden administration is at it again. While he had just a passing reference to skilled nursing in his State of the Union address, Joe Biden is back at it now. They are continuing with the mantra that after private equity firms buy nursing homes, the mortality rate increases by 10%. However, they do not say why and what other influences there may be, such as higher acuity rates, which would by definition result in more deaths. Private equity firms always try to get their operators to increase the Medicare census in facilities they purchase because that is where the profits are, not in custodial care Medicaid patients. This is partly why there is an increase in taxpayer spending after a... Read More »
Good News For Ventas, and Seniors Housing
Ventas just released its fourth quarter earnings as well as full-year 2022, and its seniors housing portfolio is looking up. Year-over-year same-community performance improved in all categories. Average occupancy increased by 140 basis points to 82.5%. While this is not a great increase for a 12-month period given the lows they were coming from, we’ll take it. Same-community cash net operating income increased year over year by 19.1% to $150.5 million, and the operating margin expanded by 220 basis points to 24.5%. Now, this is not even close to the old days, but a nice pickup. We believe, however, that these numbers include the various government payments which are going away, so the... Read More »Schedule a demo
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