• Ensign Acquires Iowa Skilled Nursing Facility

    Nick Cacciabando and Ryan Saul of Senior Living Investment Brokerage helped an industry veteran in Iowa sell his last solely-owned senior care facility, finding a publicly traded buyer in the process. The facility in question was Crystal Heights Care Center, a 72-bed skilled nursing facility in Oskaloosa, Iowa, about one hour southeast of Des... Read More »
  • Investor Group Enters the Seniors Sector Through Idaho Purchase

    An assisted living/memory care community in Twin Falls, Idaho, traded with the help of Chad Mundy and Nick Stahler of The Knapp-Stahler Group at Marcus & Millichap. The campus opened in 1989 with an eight-unit building, and added two 15-unit buildings in 2009 and 2015, respectively. Some units were added to each building in 2023 and 2024, and... Read More »
  • Value-Add Owner/Operator Grows in Texas

    Amy Sitzman, Giancarlo Riso, Connor Doherty and Ryan Kelly of Blueprint got a seniors housing deal across the finish line in Odessa, Texas. Built in 2013 as part of an expansion to an adjacent CCRC, the building has 67 assisted living and memory care units. It had gone through multiple operator changes over the years. The deal was marketed as an... Read More »
  • Seller Divests Its Only Out-Of-State Asset

    Senwell Senior Investment Advisors facilitated the successful sale of a 100-bed skilled nursing facility in Pennsylvania. Built in 1987, the facility was developed by an Ohio-based operator as part of a broader growth initiative. Its occupancy rate was consistently strong, often exceeding 95%. It was the seller’s only out-of-state asset, leading... Read More »
  • Joint Venture Adds to Its Seniors Housing Footprint 

    Foundry Commercial and funds managed by affiliates of Fortress Investment Group acquired the RoseWood Village Assisted Living and Memory Care communities in Charlottesville, Virginia. The two communities, RoseWood Village at Greenbrier and RoseWood Village at Hollymead, will be operated by Foundry Commercial’s management company, Allegro Living,... Read More »

Seniors Housing: Build or Buy?

In this strong seniors housing acquisition market, when does it make sense to build a brand new community or buy an “A” quality community? Based on seniors housing construction projects since 2013 (which includes independent, assisted living and memory care, or some combination of the three), the average cost to build a new project is approximately $209,000 per unit. New construction, of course, comes with certain benefits. You will have a brand-new community with all the bells and whistles that can help attract attention. But you then have to fill it up, staff it and deal with the increasingly potential risk of a competitor opening up down the street. And to buy a stabilized, “A” level... Read More »

A lot of building, but what’s the cost?

Taking a look at the NIC MAP® Construction Monitor as of Q2:15, which examines seniors housing construction in the Top 99 MSAs, we noticed on the AL side there were 22 MSAs with a construction vs. inventory ratio above 10%. If that doesn’t show a frothy development market, then what does? But, what is the cost to build in some of those MSAs? The Sarasota market, which has gotten a good amount of attention for its development pace, has eight assisted living properties under construction, and 893 units, representing a construction vs. inventory ratio of 30.7%. According to our data, which tracks senior living construction projects since 2013, majority-AL communities in the Sarasota market... Read More »

SNF cap rates fall

The average price paid for skilled nursing facilities has largely leveled off at around $75,000 per bed, coming to rest at $74,100 per bed for the four quarters ending Q2:15, down from $76,600 per unit in 2014. But while prices have stayed largely the same, the average cap rate fell 40 basis points to 12.0%, a new record low. In the past 14 years (looking at calendar years), the previous record-low came at the top of the previous bull market in 2007 at 12.1%. And the rate at which the average cap rate has fallen is also stark, falling 100 basis points from 2013’s average. But if the overall trend this year has been that the market is cooling down from an especially frothy 2014, why are cap... Read More »

As cap rates rise, AL prices stay

Last week, we wrote that while the average price per unit for IL communities fell by over $30,000 from the calendar year 2014 to the four quarters ending Q2:15, the average cap rate remained at 7.4%. Meanwhile, the inverse was true for the assisted living market. The average price per unit for AL communities rose slightly from $188,700 to $189,500, just a 0.4% change, over the same period, but the average cap rate rose 15 basis points from 7.75% in 2014 to 7.9% in the four quarters ending Q2:15. This could partially be explained by the fact that the IL market can be more mercurial than the AL market, as there is a more constant and stable need for assisted living. But to explain the rise... Read More »

As prices fall, IL cap rates stay

The average price per unit for independent living had the most dramatic change of the other acuity classes (a 13% drop from 2014 to the 12-months ending June 30, 2015, compared to a 0.4% increase for assisted living and a 3% drop for skilled nursing in the same time period), so one would expect some move in average cap rate, presumably a move up. But, the average IL cap rate for the 12-months ending June 30 did not budge from its 2014 level of 7.4%. Perhaps the quality of IL transactions hasn’t changed, with owners of high-quality communities still tempted by the high valuations, but there just have not been as many of those ultra-high end sales this year. Read More »

Average SNF prices fall

Prices continue to drop off from their record highs seen in 2014. As with independent living, the same holds true for skilled nursing, which fell 3% from $76,600 per bed in 2014 to $74,100 in the 12-months ending June 30, 2015, according to a supplemental report to The Senior Care Acquisition Report. Still, skilled nursing prices have risen significantly since 2011 (when the average price paid was $51,100 per bed), and have seemingly plateaued at around $75,000 per bed. With SNFs taking on higher acuity (thus higher paying) patients while also trying to increase Medicare census, the average facility value will most likely not come close to those 2011 levels again. Read More »