• Strawberry Fields REIT’s 2025 Growth

    Strawberry Fields REIT reported its 2025 operating results, noting that it was the best year since its inception more than 10 year ago. The company posted significant increases in FFO and AFFO, and it completed more than $110 million in several new acquisitions. Its portfolio now includes 131 skilled nursing facilities, 10 assisted living... Read More »
  • Owner/Operator Exits SNF Sector

    An independent owner/operator exited the skilled nursing sector through its divestment of Sunrise Country Manor, which has 80 beds in Milford, Nebraska, and features a mix of private and semi-private units. It maintained an 83% occupancy rate at the time of the sale. A regional operator looking to expand its footprint in Nebraska acquired the... Read More »
  • Assisted Living Providers Join Forces 

    Majestic Residences recently expanded its footprint, adding 17 assisted living communities and six in active development, through its acquisition of Avendelle Senior Living. Avendelle will be integrated into the Majestic Residences platform, with Avendelle’s corporate team retained. The combined organization will operate under the Majestic... Read More »
  • Investor Secures Financing and Acquires Class-A Community

    BWE’s Seniors Housing Capital Markets Team sold and financed The Capstone at Station Camp, which sits in the Nashville, Tennessee MSA. Built in 2021, the Class-A assisted living and memory care community comprises 100 units in Gallatin. It is operated by TerraBella Senior Living.  BWE represented the seller, Hunt Midwest. The buyer was a... Read More »
  • Multiple SNFs Sell in Separate Transactions

    A large skilled nursing company sold its 181-bed skilled nursing facility to a private investment firm based in New York, exiting South Carolina in the process. The buyer had an existing skilled nursing footprint, and will be leasing this facility to a regional operator. The building was older, built in the 1980s, and was around 80% occupied at... Read More »
What to Pay for a Stabilized Assisted Living Community

What to Pay for a Stabilized Assisted Living Community

Buyers are increasingly prizing stabilized assisted living communities (with stabilized defined as having an occupancy equal to or higher than 85%) over non-stabilized communities when making acquisitions. The gap between the two property types continued to widen in 2017, growing from $87,200 per unit in 2016 ($147,700 per unit for non-stabilized properties and $234,900 per unit for stabilized properties) to $128,500 per unit in 2017 ($126,200 per unit for non-stabilized and $254,700 per unit for stabilized), according to the 23rd Edition of The Senior Care Acquisition Report. The widening gulf continues a consistent theme in 2017 of investors continuing to pay up for quality and existing... Read More »
Paying For Stabilized Versus Non-Stabilized SNFs

Paying For Stabilized Versus Non-Stabilized SNFs

Given the continual decline in census for the nation’s nursing facilities, it is no longer clear where “stabilized” is in today’s market, especially as lengths of stay have shortened. For your reference, we have traditionally defined stabilized occupancy for skilled nursing facilities as 85% and higher. With that said, nursing facilities with stabilized occupancy declined in value from an average of $114,700 per bed in 2016 to $93,700 per bed in 2017, according to the 23rd Edition of The Senior Care Acquisition Report. This makes sense given the overall deterioration of the market in 2017. For non-stabilized nursing facilities, the reverse occurred. While it might... Read More »
How Old Is Too Old In Seniors Housing?

How Old Is Too Old In Seniors Housing?

For the first time in our Senior Care Acquisition Report (with the 23rd Edition just published), we decided to take a look at how investors priced in the risk purchasing a newer seniors housing community, versus an older one. As many of you know, the assisted living product did not develop in earnest until the 1990s, when at the end of the 20th century, the industry experienced a boom in development, mostly on the assisted living side. Since then, the tastes of seniors have changed, and what may have been a luxury “A” property in 2000 may not be one now. We have also more recently undergone a development boom, once again primarily in the assisted living/memory care sector. Many of these... Read More »
Pricing Age Into Seniors Housing Sales

Pricing Age Into Seniors Housing Sales

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that in 2017, the oldest seniors housing properties (independent living and assisted living properties built before 2002) were valued the lowest and the newest properties (built after 2011) were valued the highest, according to the just-published 2018 Senior Care Acquisition Report. We see a similar correlation most years, but it is important to note that not all ages take into account renovations (and they would have to be substantial renovations and/or gut rehabs to change the effective age of the building) or additions (often of memory care units). However, it is generally true that in order to better compete in today’s senior living market, investors... Read More »
The Risk of Older SNFs

The Risk of Older SNFs

One would think that the newer skilled nursing facilities would sell with lower cap rates, but that has not always been the case. As can be seen in the graph below (from the just-published 23rd Edition of The Senior Care Acquisition Report), in three of the past five years those nursing facilities over 40 years old sold with the highest average cap rate, and in the two years when they didn’t, all the cap rates were closely clustered. The youngest nursing facilities (less than 20 years old) did not produce the lowest cap rates in many of the years, however. The main reason for this is that when some buyers look at the new skilled nursing facilities, they may be paying a high price per... Read More »
The Price of Age in Skilled Nursing

The Price of Age in Skilled Nursing

As most of you know, skilled nursing prices plummeted 18% in 2017 to $81,350 per bed, according to the 23rd Edition of The Senior Care Acquisition Report. But with that decline, did the age of the properties sold throughout the year have a significant impact? For obvious reasons, older skilled nursing facilities sell, on average, for a lower price than newer facilities. In 2016, there was a nearly perfect correlation between age and the price paid per bed. This did not occur in 2017, as the oldest group, those facilities more than 40 years old, sold for an average price per bed ($79,750) that was 26% higher than the next age group of 20 to 40 years ($63,000). Some of the older facilities... Read More »