• Did Blackstone Sell Too Soon?

    According to recent media reports, real estate investor The Blackstone Group has sold and is in the process of selling about $1.8 billion in seniors housing assets. It wants to completely exit the seniors housing business which they claim has been a disaster for them. One report stated that they have lost upwards of $600 million across the... Read More »
  • Brookdale Continues Winning Streak

    The big question is, why did this not happen earlier? We are talking about Brookdale Senior Living’s occupancy recovery, and why the previous leadership seemed unable to move the needle, but as soon as they were gone, everything has been on an upward trend. Hmmmmm.  Things are not perfect at Brookdale, but they never were. However,... Read More »
  • National Health Investors Adjusts Its SHOP Portfolio

    National Health Investors, Inc. announced some adjustments to its SHOP portfolio, raising its full-year guidance for the third consecutive quarter due to the contribution of recently transitioned and newly acquired SHOP properties, along with continued strength in its investment pipeline. The REIT also had an update on its lease agreement with... Read More »
  • Strawberry Fields’ Three Separate SNF Transactions

    Strawberry Fields REIT, Inc. announced three separate skilled nursing transactions that closed during the third quarter. Two previously announced acquisitions were in Missouri, and the recently announced purchase was in Oklahoma.  In July, the REIT completed the acquisition of nine skilled nursing facilities with 686 beds in Missouri. The... Read More »
  • Receivership Estate Sells in Alabama

    Kory Buzin and Steve Thomes of Blueprint handled another successful sale on behalf of a lender and special servicer, this time involving a receivership estate in Mobile, Alabama. Knollwood Point, a 2001-vintage, 46-unit assisted living and memory care community, struggled in recent years as a result of challenged occupancy and volatile staffing.... Read More »
Average SNF And Seniors Housing Prices Hit Four-Year Low

Average SNF And Seniors Housing Prices Hit Four-Year Low

The headwinds facing skilled nursing and assisted living have finally had their impact on acquisition values. We are obviously not in good times right now, but it is also not as bad as it sometimes appears. The mood is cautious for most, but hopeful for many, as occupancy and labor continue to be the problem issues facing the entire industry. What I don’t like, however, is when news reports come out saying that 50% of SNFs nationally lose money. What they fail to say is that this is after depreciation, amortization, interest and lease expense. Before these costs, the vast majority of nursing facilities are still making money, just not as much as in the past. It looks like 2018 was finally... Read More »
Average SNF And Seniors Housing Prices Hit Four-Year Low

Seniors Housing & Care Acquisition Stats

The Seniors Housing Acquisition and Investment Report, and the Skilled Nursing Acquisition and Investment Report will be coming soon with better data then ever before. We are closing out the 2018 data for our skilled nursing and seniors housing acquisition market statistics, which will be presented in two separate reports this year, to be released in March. They will be called the Seniors Housing Acquisition and Investment Report, and the Skilled Nursing Acquisition and Investment Report. Let’s just say that with a record number of publicly announced transactions last year, plus the private ones we receive, the quality of the data for this year’s reports is the best it has ever been. It... Read More »
Preliminary 2018 M&A Results Are In

Preliminary 2018 M&A Results Are In

The preliminary numbers are in, and 2018 has shattered the previous record for healthcare M&A deal volume with 1,850 transactions announced, and counting, according to Deal Search Online. That is more than 200 deals more than the previous record of 1,617 transactions announced in 2017. Of the 591 deals that disclosed a price across all 13 healthcare sectors, the total dollar volume comes out to about $330 billion, including two mega deals: Takeda Pharmaceutical Company’s $81.5 billion acquisition of rare disease pharmaceutical company Shire plc and Cigna’s purchase of pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts for $67 billion. By contrast, 2017’s total reached $311.6 billion, the largest... Read More »
2018: The Year of the Senior Care Deal

2018: The Year of the Senior Care Deal

Congress and the White House may be at an impasse, but seniors housing and care investors have been making deals at a record-setting pace in 2018. As of now, with a few days left before the usual end-of-year rush of closings, we have recorded 400 publicly announced senior care transactions so far this year. That both beats the previous record (365 deals announced in 2015) and crushes last year’s total of 307 transactions. Dollar value may be a different story when the year wraps up, as the total of all disclosed prices just tops $12.6 billion, the lowest annual sum since 2013’s $11.7 billion. But we have always said the health of the M&A market should be measured by the number of... Read More »
Skilled Nursing Prices Hold Steady

Skilled Nursing Prices Hold Steady

Despite numerous headwinds, an aging supply and decreasing national census, skilled nursing facility prices stayed remarkably steady in the past four quarters. In the 12 months ended September 30, 2018, we recorded an average price of $81,900 per bed for skilled nursing sales, up 4% from the previous four-quarter period and up 0.7% from calendar year 2017. We saw more of a change in the average cap rate, which dipped below 12% (a pretty rare occurrence) to 11.9%, which is down from 12.55% in the 12 months ending June 30, 2018 and from 12.3% in 2017. The average price is still about 20% off from the sector’s record-high average price of about $100,000 per bed in 2016, which begs the... Read More »
Independent Living Prices Drop

Independent Living Prices Drop

Independent living prices dropped in the four quarters ended September 30, 2018, but not as sharply as assisted living did. Buyers paid on average $219,600 per unit for independent living communities, down from a near-record high of $241,300 per unit during the last four-quarter period. Why the smaller drop? The IL market has seen much less development in the space (and has seen more stable average occupancy as a result), and its less staff-intensive model lessens the future labor risks. However, this smaller market is still sharply divided between the luxury, high-rent and high-margin IL communities built in high barrier-to-entry markets, and the more middle-market communities. It’s those... Read More »