• NHI Acquires Nine Communities

    National Health Investors made a large SHOP purchase, adding nine communities consisting of 460 total units across Kentucky, South Carolina and Tennessee. The properties will be managed by Allegro Living Management, an affiliate of Spring Arbor Management. NHI has an existing relationship with Spring Arbor totaling approximately $227 million in... Read More »
  • Ensign Increases Its Footprint in Three States

    The Ensign Group and its captive real estate company, Standard Bearer Healthcare REIT, are already off to a strong start this year, announcing a slew of acquisitions that were effective February 1. In one of the transactions, Ensign purchased Agave Grove Post Acute’s operations, subject to a long-term, triple-net lease with a third-party... Read More »
  • Colorado-Based Owner/Operator Expands

    Vince Viverito, Jason Punzel, Jake Anderson and Taylor Graham of Senior Living Investment Brokerage sold a seniors housing community in Arvada, Colorado, representing a single-asset owner/operator who was looking to retire. The Oberon House was built in 1970 and renovated in 1997. It features 60 units of independent living and assisted living and... Read More »
  • Not-for-Profit Acquires Underperforming CCRC

    A not-for-profit seller that built, owned and operated Arbutus Park Retirement Community recently divested the asset to another not-for-profit with the help of Toby Siefert of Senior Living Investment Brokerage. The established senior care provider/buyer, which is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, intends to continue to invest in the community.... Read More »
  • Capital Funding Group’s 2025 Financing Volume

    Capital Funding Group executed more than $3.1 billion in financings in 2025, representing a 121% increase in financing volume compared to $1.4 billion closed in 2024. The annual total comprises 175 deals, including 54 healthcare and multifamily bridge loans and other lending products, 28 HUD loans, 25 accounts receivable lines of credit and 68... Read More »
The two Assisted Living markets

The two Assisted Living markets

We first separated out the “A” properties from the “B” properties in 2012, based on the properties’ age, size and location. While there will likely be some “A” communities mixed in with the “B” communities (and the other way around), it all evens out. And when looking at the numbers, these are clearly two different markets. In 2015, “A” properties sold for an average of $248,500 per unit, while “B” properties sold for an average of $138,300 per unit, a difference of $110,200. That means that “A” properties were worth almost double the value of “B” properties. The previous year (2014) the difference was amplified even more. “A” properties in 2014 sold for an average of $244,800 per unit and... Read More »

2015: A Year of Extremes?

We have mentioned previously that 2014 saw an unusually large number of high-valued transactions, with the extreme top-end prices driving the average seniors housing prices to historic levels, as well as pushing down cap rates to new lows. But in 2015, while there were proportionally fewer of both the highest-priced deals and the lowest-priced deals (see our April 13 blog post), it was a year of extremes for cap rates. In 2014, the two ends of the market (cap rates above 9% or below 7%) made up 24% of the year’s transaction cap rates. In 2015, cap rates over 9% made up 15% of the total cap rates, and those under 7% accounted for 27%, combining for 42% of the market. Clearly, the boost in... Read More »
A weightier fall

A weightier fall

In our quest to try to determine the truest “market cap rate” for the seniors housing market, for the first time in 2014 we decided to weight each transaction’s cap rate based on its number of units. For the seniors housing market (including both assisted living and independent living), whereas the average un-weighted cap rate in the last four years fell in two descending plateaus, the weighted average had a steadier decrease. In reality, it was a slightly steeper fall, with the unweighted average decreasing by 100 basis points from 2012 to 2015 and the weighted average decreasing by 110 basis points. As in all previous years, the weighted average cap rate in 2015 was lower than the... Read More »

IL cap rates follow prices down

As prices rise, we would expect cap rates to depress accordingly to reflect the increasing values. However, even though the average price per unit for independent living properties fell 22% from $246,800 in 2014 to $192,900 in 2015, the average IL cap rate dropped by 40 basis points from 7.4% in 2014 to 7.0% in 2015. What contributed to this anomaly? First, independent living prices reached unsustainable heights in 2014, propped up by a number of sales of high-quality properties by owners drawn into the frothy market. So, it is not surprising that the average IL price fell to a still-respectable value (the second-highest average price, in fact). Second, there were simply fewer high-cap... Read More »
AL cap rates sink even deeper

AL cap rates sink even deeper

We have spent the last few weeks discussing the skilled nursing market, focusing particularly on the average cap rate falling to near-record lows. But what about the assisted living M&A market? We saw the average price per unit for assisted living communities rise slightly (from $188,700 in 2014 to $189,200 in 2015), and in turn the average cap rate fell by five basis points from 7.75% to 7.7%. Despite the slight decrease, this is still a continuation of the “new normal” AL market. Since the Great Recession, the average cap rate has steadily been declining, and seemed to rest at around 8.7% in 2012 and 2013. But since then, the current market has settled to an average cap rate around... Read More »