• Interview with Arnie Whitman and Meredith Oppenheim on VITALS

    The SeniorCare Investor’s Ben Swett recently sat down with Meredith Oppenheim and Arnie Whitman to discuss their new framework for seniors housing operators to improve the quality of life for their residents, but also to position the sector for greater success and wider appeal in the future. Watch the conversation here. Read More »
  • Michigan-Based Owner/Operator Expands in Tampa MSA

    American House Senior Living Communities added Beach House Assisted Living & Memory Care in Wesley Chapel, Florida (Tampa MSA), to its operating portfolio and renamed the property American House Wesley Chapel. The community features 67 assisted living and 33 memory care units with studio, one- and two-bedroom floor plans, some with balconies... Read More »
  • Seniors Housing Community Near Chicago Gets New Owner

    SVN Chicago Commercial sold McKenzie Falls, an affordable seniors housing community in Bolingbrook, Illinois, roughly 30 miles southwest of downtown Chicago. The building was constructed in 2010 and spans 74,047 square feet across one story.  An undisclosed buyer acquired the 105-unit community for $6.7 million, or $63,800 per unit. Reid... Read More »
  • Healthpeak Properties Provides Janus Living Updates

    Healthpeak Properties’ recently formed seniors housing REIT, Janus Living, which will manage Healthpeak’s 34-community seniors housing portfolio, has filed a registration statement on Form S-11 with the SEC relating to a proposed initial public offering of its shares of Class A-1 common stock, which the company intends to list on the NYSE under... Read More »
  • SLIB Handles Senior Care Campus Deal in Missouri

    A Maryland-based owner/operator looked to expand its Missouri senior care portfolio with the purchase of Kingdom Care Senior Living in the town of Fulton. Built in 1980, the campus includes four independent living units, 26 assisted living units and 36 skilled nursing beds. It currently holds a five-star rating at the SNF and is the only... Read More »
How Occupancy Impacted 2018 Assisted Living Values

How Occupancy Impacted 2018 Assisted Living Values

As we’ve mentioned several times, 2018 was a tough year for assisted living occupancy, as new development took its toll on a number of markets. Low occupancy often leads to lower operating margins and less cash flow, especially when operators feel the need to heavily discount their rates in order to fill beds, so it’s a serious issue for the industry. In our Seniors Housing Acquisition & Investment Report, “stabilized” means having an occupancy equal to or higher than 85%. And while there are some operators not pleased with their “stabilized” communities occupied in the 80s, it could be worse, and there was clearly a premium paid for existing census in 2018. Stabilized communities sold... Read More »
Older, Struggling SNFs Had More Weight In 2018 Market

Older, Struggling SNFs Had More Weight In 2018 Market

We have historically presented our cap rate analysis on an unweighted average basis, weighting the cap rate for a 60-bed skilled nursing facility and a portfolio of 20 facilities the same in our Skilled Nursing Acquisition & Investment Report (which you can still order here). Many buyers believe that a portfolio should command a lower cap rate than a single-asset sale, but that often depends on the quality of the portfolio and whether there are any stinkers in the portfolio. A weighted average cap rate thus removes this bias. What this has shown is that over time since we started separating out these two averages is that there has been very little difference between the two cap rate... Read More »
The ABCs of the Independent Living Market

The ABCs of the Independent Living Market

For some years now, we have separated out the assisted living and independent living M&A markets into a couple of quality-based categories, classified as “A,” “B,” and “C” properties. The determination is made by the property’s age, location and size, and there are always going to be some properties that can fit into either category. But they should balance out in the end. Some owners of “A” properties do not believe it is an apples-to-apples comparison between the quality of their communities and “B” and “C” communities in general, and probably vice versa. That is because the rates that “A” communities can charge and the margins they can operate at often exceed those of “B” and “C”... Read More »
Does Size Matter in Seniors Housing?

Does Size Matter in Seniors Housing?

Last week, we took a look at the relationship between the size of the skilled nursing facility and the price it sold at, according to statistics from our just-published Skilled Nursing Acquisition & Investment Report. And like skilled nursing facilities, the larger the seniors housing property, the higher price paid for it, generally. That is because larger institutional properties can take advantage of scale to boost cash flow and thus its value. In addition, the majority IL communities tend to be large and IL has commanded high prices in most years. There are indeed smaller “boutique” memory care communities that can command a high per-unit price because of the rents they can charge... Read More »
Did Skilled Nursing Investors Pay for Size in 2018?

Did Skilled Nursing Investors Pay for Size in 2018?

The skilled nursing market has been going through many changes in recent years as it adapts to new reimbursement policies, shorter lengths of stay and more medically-complex patients. But did all of that affect what buyers will pay for size in 2018? Well, according to the 2019 Skilled Nursing Acquisition & Investment Report (available soon), there was a perfect correlation between size of nursing facility sold and the average price per bed for the second year in a row. Historically, larger facilities have commanded the higher prices because of their ability to scale, lower the per patient costs and fill beds with Medicaid patients at will. However, those advantages may soon backfire... Read More »
What Happened To Assisted Living Prices?

What Happened To Assisted Living Prices?

The assisted living sector fell back to earth in 2018 and dragged the rest of the seniors housing sector with it, according to the soon-to-be-published Seniors Housing Acquisition & Investment Report. Following three successive years of steady increases and a record-high price per unit in 2017 of $221,250, assisted living properties sold on average for just $186,400 per unit in 2018, a 15.8% decline. What could have happened in only a year to cause such a fall? Partially, it was because the share of communities with either 100% or some component of memory care units (which are usually valued higher for their higher rents and more need-based residents) fell from 70% of all communities... Read More »