• 60 Seconds with Swett: Sticks and Bricks in ’26?

    The talk around new development is getting a lot more serious in the seniors housing industry, leading us to wonder if our 2024 prediction of “Sticks and Bricks in ‘26” may actually come true, somewhat. Back then, we may have thought that interest rates would have come down a bit more by now, but that the FOMO of getting involved in seniors... Read More »
  • Wyoming SNF Sale Sets New State Record

    There was a new record set for skilled nursing pricing in the state of Wyoming with the sale of Big Horn Rehabilitation and Care Center in Sheridan. Built in the 1960s, the facility features 128 beds and was 61% occupied. It was owned by a regional operator that was looking to recycle capital.  Before the marketing process, Evans Senior... Read More »
  • Owner/Operator Acquires Facility Out of Bankruptcy

    A senior care facility in Worcester, Massachusetts, sold as part of a bankruptcy process with the help of Patrick Burke and Toby Siefert of Senior Living Investment Brokerage. Built in 1970, Donna Kay Rest Home features 60 licensed beds in 31 units, providing a higher level of care and supervision than assisted living but at a lesser acuity than... Read More »
  • Civitas Sells Community to Clarion

    Hap Knowles and Nick Stahler of the Knapp-Stahler Group at Institutional Property Advisors announced that they led the sale of a seniors housing community in the Phoenix, Arizona MSA, to the fast-growing real estate investment firm Clarion Partners. The deal appears to be The Retreat at Alameda, a 110-unit assisted living/memory care community in... Read More »
  • Blueprint Handles Recapitalization

    Blueprint handled the recapitalization of Forest Hills Commons, a 2017-developed, 119-unit assisted living/memory care community in the Louisville, Kentucky MSA. A Louisville-based senior living owner/operator/developer engaged Blueprint in the third quarter of 2025 to begin the process. The asset demonstrated strong in-place performance and... Read More »
Genesis Healthcare Surges

Genesis Healthcare Surges

Wow. It is amazing what a short analyst report can do to a stock, when it upgrades the recommendation to “Buy” with a price target that is 50% above the current price. That is what happened to Genesis Healthcare yesterday, after Chad Vanacore of Stifel wrote about the company and the improved outlook for skilled nursing in general. The previous closing price was $1.31 per share, and it surged by 26% to $1.65 in early trading on heavier than usual volume. Why? Signs of stabilization in the company’s core portfolio, improved reimbursement outlook for 2019 and beyond, a de-levering of the balance sheet and the divestiture of 55 facilities with unprofitable leases. That doesn’t mean it is... Read More »
What 10 Years Can Do

What 10 Years Can Do

With everyone so fixated on the future (the upcoming flu season, the 2026 Boomer Boom, etc…), and rightfully so, we also think it’s important to peak back in the past to gain some perspective. A #flashbackfriday, if you will. November 2008 doesn’t conjure many fond memories for most industries, but particularly for the capital markets. By that month, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped below 8,000 (on its way to 6,443 in March 2009). Liquidity had dried up, and investors, more often than not, were looking to sell, not buy (even if some of those buys would have paid off many times over in hindsight). And when those selling shareholders had a target in mind, they went for blood, selling... Read More »
The Gold Standard A Bit Tarnished

The Gold Standard A Bit Tarnished

A scathing article from The Washington Post discloses quality problems at HCR ManorCare before its sale to Welltower and ProMedica Health System. For those of you who missed the Thanksgiving weekend article from the Washington Post about poor care at HCR ManorCare’s nursing facilities in Pennsylvania, well, why ruin a great weekend? All kidding aside, it did not portray HCR ManorCare in a very good light, citing numerous cases of poor care and lack of staffing. But I am not sure if they were attacking HCR ManorCare itself, or The Carlyle Group, which owned the company at the time and did the $6 billion sale/leaseback which financially strangled them. Granted, most of the events cited in... Read More »

What Happened To Assisted Living Prices?

The results are in for our rolling four-quarter averages for assisted living, independent living and skilled nursing sales, and they may surprise you. Assisted living prices, on average, dropped 15% to just $177,600 per unit for the four quarters ended September 30, 2018. That follows six straight quarters with an average price above $208,000 per unit for the sector and represents the lowest level since the second quarter of 2014, when we recorded an average of $162,000 per unit. What happened to the assisted living sector, which has so far seen record levels of M&A activity? In the last 12 months, there not only have been a lower number of very high-priced deals (above $300,000 per... Read More »
Five Star Not Shining

Five Star Not Shining

Hindsight is usually 20-20, and in the case of Five Star Senior Living, looking back two years, the company should have accepted the offer from Gemini Properties and the Thomas brothers of Senior Star, who offered to pay $325 million for 33 owned Five Star communities. They had already accumulated more than 6% of the company’s stock, an investment they most likely regret. But management, and really the then-controlling shareholder, the late Barry Portnoy, wanted nothing of it. In fact, Mr. Portnoy announced a tender offer to buy 10 million shares of Five Star at $3.00 per share to enhance his controlling position. That’s an investment where his estate would like a re-do. The Gemini/Senior... Read More »
Are Assisted Living Prices Sustainable?

Are Assisted Living Prices Sustainable?

On November 15th, we hosted a webinar entitled “Are Assisted Living Prices Sustainable? Premium Prices for a Premium Product.” In it, our editor Steve Monroe and a panel of experts including Brad Clousing of Senior Living Investment Brokerage, Jacob Gehl of Blueprint Healthcare Real Estate Advisors, Adam Kaplan of Solera Senior Living and Jesse Marinko of Phoenix Senior Living, had a wide-ranging discussion on the state of the assisted living market today. Are current values sustainable as high as they are? How do you finance those high-cost transactions and get your desired returns? Is it actually cheaper to build rather than buy an existing community, especially when there’s the risk of... Read More »