• 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 »
Expense Ratios: Independent Living Vs. Assisted Living

Expense Ratios: Independent Living Vs. Assisted Living

When comparing the independent living and assisted living markets, one would expect IL communities to operate at a higher margin than AL, given its lower services and thus, costs. And while that remained true in 2016, independent living and assisted living expense ratios came as close to equal as any time in the past, at 69.5% and 72.5%, respectively, according to the 22nd Edition of The Senior Care Acquisition Report. Only in 2011, when independent living had a higher expense ratio than assisted living, by just 10 basis points, did the two sectors operate more similarly. The shift has been steady, with the spread between IL and AL expense ratios of properties sold sharply decreasing from... Read More »

Expensive Seniors Housing Sales With Low Expense Ratios

It’s no surprise that as a community’s expense ratio declines, its value increases. As such, there was a near-perfect correlation between the expense ratio and the average price per unit paid in the seniors housing market in 2016 (including independent living and assisted living communities), according to the The Senior Care Acquisition Report. The best-operating communities with expense ratios under 65% were valued on average at $298,100 per unit, way up from the $256,100 per unit recorded in 2015. Both years were still heavily influenced by high-quality independent living sales. Meanwhile, the grouping with a 65% to 69% expense ratio fell in value year over year, from $193,000 per unit... Read More »
New Senior Care M&A Data

New Senior Care M&A Data

Assisted living per-unit prices rise for the latest four quarters, while skilled nursing remains the same. It was a relatively slow first quarter with regard to publicly announced seniors housing and care acquisitions, other than some old large deals announced last year that finally closed in the quarter. On a rolling four quarters basis, the average price for assisted living jumped to $210,300 per unit for the period ended March 31, compared with $193,650 per unit for calendar year 2016. The average cap rate remained at 8.5% but with an obvious wide range. Meanwhile, independent living did the reverse, dropping to $208,900 per unit for the four quarters ended March 31 compared with... Read More »

Sizing Up the Seniors Housing Market

In 2016, buyers paid up for larger seniors housing communities (including independent living and assisted living) compared to 2015. We observed in the 22nd Edition of The Senior Care Acquisition Report that once again, the largest properties, with 150 units or more, still beat out smaller properties in price, averaging $226,200 per unit, 16% higher than 2015’s $195,600 per unit. Here is where the high-priced independent living communities that sold in 2016 exerted their influence in the overall market, representing a clear majority of the largest properties and pushing up the price. Communities with between 100 and 149 units came with a lower price than 50- to 99-unit communities,... Read More »

An Optimal Size for Skilled Nursing?

As the skilled nursing market evolves, lengths of stay and occupancy decline, and new entrants like Mainstreet change the way we view skilled nursing/post-acute care facilities, what is the ideal size of facility now? Based on 2016 sales according to the 22nd Edition of The Senior Care Acquisition Report, the average size of skilled nursing facilities sold dropped for the first time in three years to 122 beds, and was closer to the historical norm of 120 beds. That fell from 130 beds in 2015, and is the lowest since 2013, when facilities averaged 121 beds. The smallest facility sold in 2016 was 40 beds, compared with 30 beds in 2015, while the largest facility sold in 2016 was 744 beds,... Read More »
The Audience Has Spoken

The Audience Has Spoken

On April 27, The SeniorCare Investor’s Steve Monroe moderated a webinar entitled “Investing in the CCRC and Independent Living Market,” with panelists Breck Collingsworth of Resort Lifestyle Communities, Adam Kane of Erickson Living and Rick Swartz of Cushman & Wakefield. During the wide-ranging 90-minute discussion, which you can listen to here, the panel tackled CCRC valuations, cap rates, the IL/CCRC development market, whether these property types will suffer in the next recession as much as the last one. We also brought in the audience a few times to get their insight. First, we asked which property should have a higher cap rate, 100% independent living or a mix of IL, assisted... Read More »