• Brookdale Occupancy Stalls

    Brookdale Senior Living released its November occupancy results, and its census growth has stalled this Fall. In its consolidated portfolio, weighted average occupancy fell by 10 basis points from 82.6% in October to 82.5% in November, while month-end occupancy dropped more significantly from 83.7% to 83.4%. Same-community results were not... Read More »
  • Well-Performing Facility Sells for Strong Price

    A rare skilled nursing and behavioral health facility in Tucson, Arizona, sold for a strong price to a partnership between a regional healthcare equity investor and a national skilled nursing operator. Featuring more than 140 beds, the facility is licensed by the state for both medical and behavioral health services, being the only SNF in the... Read More »
  • AL Community with Attached SNF Trades

    An assisted living community with an attached, vacant 65-bed skilled nursing facility in Faribault, Minnesota, sold with the help of Ray Giannini of Marcus & Millichap. Built in 1998, Pleasant View Estates features 36 units and a 75% elderly waiver census. The community was well-occupied and operated at a strong margin. It was previously... Read More »
  • Regional Bank Funds Dallas Development

    Construction projects, although rare, can still get done these days. Tremper Capital Group successfully secured an $84 million non-recourse loan from a regional bank to fund a development in the Dallas, Texas MSA. The 164-unit independent living, assisted living and memory care project is being built by Harbert South Bay Partners in the... Read More »
  • UMRH Expands Two CCRCs in North Carolina

    Ziegler closed The United Methodist Retirement Homes’ (UMRH) $92.125 million Series 2025A, 2025B and 2025C bonds. UMRH is a North Carolina-based not-for-profit corporation that owns and operates three CCRCs in North Carolina: Croasdaile Village Retirement Community in Durham, Wesley Pines Retirement Community in Lumberton, and Cypress Glen... 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 »