• 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 »
Average Seniors Housing Occupancy Falls To Record-Low

Average Seniors Housing Occupancy Falls To Record-Low

The latest occupancy figures are out from NIC, and we suppose it could have been worse. Seniors housing communities reported that their census dropped on average by 280 basis points in the second quarter of 2020, from 87.7% to 84.5%. That is the lowest level ever recorded since NIC started reporting this data 14 years ago. Separating the market out, assisted living communities experienced a steeper decline, from 85.3% to 82.1% during the quarter, while independent living, which was in better health as a sector going into the pandemic, fell 240 basis points to 87.4%. Given the longer lengths of stay and the younger, healthier residents in independent living, that makes sense. Being a more... Read More »
One Small Provider Tackles The Coronavirus, And Performs

One Small Provider Tackles The Coronavirus, And Performs

As we all know by now, the coronavirus has been impacting providers very differently. Some not-for-profits have been spared, while others have suffered greatly. The very large national providers have seen surges in positive cases and deaths in some of their buildings, while other buildings they operate have been completely spared. Was senior management doing something different in the spared buildings? Probably not, but often times it can be the local management team, and just as often with this pandemic, it can just be a matter of luck.  Small providers, especially those with hands-on senior management, seem to have fared reasonably well from conversations we have had. Were they in... Read More »
Q2 Senior Care M&A Falls To Seven-Year Low

Q2 Senior Care M&A Falls To Seven-Year Low

Well, we can’t say we aren’t surprised. COVID-19 and the economic ramifications stemming from social distancing and quarantine measures took a toll on seniors housing and care M&A, leaving the sector with just 59 publicly announced transactions in the second quarter. Back in early April, we said the second quarter’s deal total would be low and wondered if we’d even get to 50 transactions. Even though we did surpass that level, a closer look at the deals reveals an even bleaker market.  The decline in activity is made even more stark after an unprecedented level of deal-making in 2019, with 450 total transactions (not including scores more that were... Read More »
Recession Resistant Assisted Living? The Audience Speaks

Recession Resistant Assisted Living? The Audience Speaks

When the seniors housing industry emerged from the Great Recession, it quickly became apparent that it performed well during that economic downturn, especially when compared against other “real estate” asset classes, and especially the assisted living sub-sector. It became known as “recession resistant,” something that made a lot of investors happy.   Now that we have officially entered into the first recession since the Great Recession, we thought it was a good time to talk with industry leaders and get their take on whether assisted living would once again be recession resistant, even though it would be a very different kind of recession.  Last week we hosted... Read More »
Seniors Housing Occupancy Slides Further, But Slower

Seniors Housing Occupancy Slides Further, But Slower

Well, it shouldn’t have surprised anyone, but occupancy levels for stabilized independent living and assisted living continued their drop in the month of May, according to NIC MAP. Across the country’s 31 largest metropolitan areas, assisted living properties first fell by 170 basis points from 87.8% in March (the first full month of the COVID-19 pandemic) to 86.1% in April. The sector occupancy fell by a lesser degree in May, by 90 basis points to 85.2%. So, in total, that is a 360-basis point drop for assisted living since the pandemic began.   The independent living sector has so far fared better than assisted living, but it also has the benefit of being in a stronger position going... Read More »
National Health Investors: What Pandemic?

National Health Investors: What Pandemic?

It seems that National Health Investors is doing just fine during this pandemic, as are its operators, apparently. The Tennessee-based REIT reported that it has collected 99.7% of its contractual rent in April, 100% in May, and so far, 99.4% in June. That should make shareholders feel pretty good right now.  On the occupancy front, excluding communities that have been open less than 24 months, it was not quite as rosy but nothing they can’t handle. For 41 same-community properties operated by Bickford Senior Living, occupancy has dropped 240 basis points, from 86.6% in March to 84.2% in May. The first quarter averaged 87.3%.   Senior Living... Read More »