• Sonida Senior Living Grows For The Future

    The last to report 2024 earnings in our sector, Sonida Senior Living turned in a decent fourth quarter, but maybe not as good as they were hoping for. They are looking to the future, however, and not past performance, and are gearing up for growth.  While the same-community occupancy of 86.6% in the fourth quarter is certainly above average... Read More »
  • 60 Seconds with Swett: The Demand for SNFs

    We had a fantastic webinar last week that covered our recently published valuation statistics from The Senior Care Acquisition Report but also how valuations, the lending environment and M&A strategies are changing in 2025, so far. Jason Punzel of Senior Living Investment Brokerage, Steve Munn of VIUM Capital and JP LoMonaco of CBRE joined me... Read More »
  • NHI Acquires in New Jersey

    National Health Investors invested $46.3 million, or $386,000 per unit, inclusive of transaction costs, for the acquisition of a seniors housing community in Bergen County, New Jersey. Juniper Village at Paramus comprises 98 assisted living and 22 memory care units. The community has been operated by Juniper Communities since February 2021. The... Read More »
  • Growing Owner/Operator Acquires Illinois SNF/SLF

    Andrew Montgomery of Montgomery Intermediary Group announced a couple of transactions in Illinois and Mississippi. First was for a skilled nursing/supportive living facility in a small, rural Illinois market. The facility features over 130 SNF beds and SLF units and sold to a large owner group that invested alongside a growing owner/operator in... Read More »
  • Berkadia’s Recent Activity

    Berkadia Seniors Housing & Healthcare handled two separate transactions in Michigan and Tennessee. First, Berkadia sold and secured financing for Clinton Creek Assisted Living and Memory Care. The community is in the Detroit MSA and was 90% occupied at closing. It was financed with a bridge-to-HUD loan, representing 67% of the purchase price.... Read More »
And the vote is in…

And the vote is in…

On October 13, our editor Steve Monroe moderated a webinar called “Skilled Nursing: Buying, Selling & Valuing,” with panelists Ben Atkins, Chairman of Traditions Senior Management, Charles Bissell, Executive Director of Integra Realty Resources, Ben Firestone, Senior Managing Director & Founding Partner of Blueprint Healthcare Real Estate Advisors, and Stephen Graham, SVP/Director of Post-Acute Acquisition & Development of MedEquities Realty Trust. During the 90 minutes, we posed two poll questions to our listeners and got some interesting results. First, in response to “Should high acuity, subacute SNFs sell with a higher or lower cap rate than more traditional SNFs?,” 55% of... Read More »

NIC’s Third Quarter Numbers

NIC has come out with its third quarter occupancy, construction, asking rates and absorption stats, and we have to admit, we were disappointed with the numbers, especially on occupancy. Assisted living occupancy was basically flat with the second quarter amid hopes that there might be some acceleration. Independent living rose by just 10 basis points from the second quarter and was flat with a year ago. Asking rents were at their highest in years, but the numbers do not factor in the discounting which remains prevalent in many markets. Now, with Hurricane Matthew about to hit the southeast coast, and communities in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas already beginning to evacuate residents... Read More »

King Cash

When it comes to value, it all comes down to cash flow. For the fourth year in a row, according to the 21st Edition of The Senior Care Acquisition Report, there has been a record level of net operating income per bed purchased in the skilled nursing market. This has been the primary driver of the steady rise in the average price per bed since 2011. At the last market peak in 2007, the average NOI per bed sold was $6,700 and the average price per bed was $55,200. From 2007 until 2015, the average NOI grew to $9,600 per bed, for an increase of 43%, while the average price per bed increased to $85,900, representing a 55% increase. Most nursing facilities have been trying to increase their... Read More »

Lower Expenses, Higher Prices

One would assume that as a skilled nursing facility’s profitability increased, so should its price. And that was indeed the case in 2015, with a perfect correlation between the average price per bed and the expense rate. Facilities with an expense ratio of 90% and over sold in 2015 for an average of $46,000 per bed, while those with expense ratios between 85% and 89% sold for $75,000 per bed on average. The high end of the market, meaning those facilities with expense ratios under 85%, not surprisingly sold for the highest price, averaging $128,100 per bed in 2015. Clearly, well-operating skilled nursing facilities are very attractive to investors in search of a high return, at least when... Read More »

Quantity over Quality?

What is the added cost of purchasing a portfolio of assisted living communities versus single-facilities? That is a question we try to answer in our Senior Care Acquisition Report (now in its 21st Edition). Now, there is no guarantee that a buyer will pay more for a portfolio of properties, but rather, the premium has to do with both the number of properties and the quality. For statistical purposes, we define “portfolio” sales as those sales with three or more properties. Most years, there is a sizeable difference between the average price paid for portfolios compared with smaller purchases. In 2015, we recorded one of the largest premiums in recent years of $47,600 per unit, or a 30%... Read More »

2014, the top-heavy year

As 2015 passed by and 2016 hits the half-way point, we are further reminded of just how extreme a year 2014 was, in terms of seniors housing pricing. This was yet again on display when looking at the price-per-unit spread between stabilized and non-stabilized assisted living properties from 2014 to 2015, according the 21st Edition of The Senior Care Acquisition Report. Stabilized assisted living properties in 2014 sold on average for $230,300 per unit, while non-stabilized properties sold for an average of $139,000 per unit, for a spread of $91,300. However, this spread greatly diminished in 2015 to just $61,500, with stabilized properties averaging $200,600 per unit and non-stabilized... Read More »