Of Ventas, Welltower and NIC
I know as one gets older, confusion can become more common. And today, I am a little confused about the state of the senior living industry. -Sponsored by The Senior Care Acquisition Reports NIC MAP has reported that maybe we have hit bottom in the third quarter, and that new construction starts are starting to decline, even though new openings remain high. Assisted living occupancy, while posting a small sequential increase, still remains far too low to get excited, but bottoming out would be welcome news. Then, Ventas reported its third quarter earnings, painting a not-so-pretty picture. Their RIDEA operating portfolio has not been performing well, posting a 5.0% decline in... Read More »
Good Occupancy News From NIC
There was some good news on the occupancy front, according the data just released from NIC MAP, but the assisted living sector isn’t out of the woods yet. Sequentially, seniors housing (including independent living and assisted living) saw a 30-basis point increase in occupancy to 88.0% for properties in the top-31 primary metropolitan markets. For primary and secondary markets combined, the increase was slightly more moderate at 20 basis points, sequentially, to 87.8%. When separating out the community types, independent living saw a 20-basis point increase to 90.2%, while assisted living rose 30 basis points to 85.4%. For stabilized seniors housing properties, occupancy grew to 89.8%, a... Read More »
Welcome To NIC
As more than 3,000 people descend on NIC in Chicago this week, we hope talk will also focus on operations and ideas and not just investments. Good luck with that one. If you can believe it, this is my 29th consecutive Fall NIC Conference. There may be 15 of us who can claim that. But boy has it changed from the days they were trying to educate capital so money would be invested in senior living. Today, there is certainly no shortage of capital. While NIC is known as a deal-making conference, there should be a lot of other things on attendees’ minds. Are they talking about affordable senior living? What about penetration rates, which seem to have stalled in the 10% to 11% range? We assume... Read More »
Where Is the Seniors Housing Rebound?
Seniors housing occupancy rates still remain low despite an apparent slowdown in new development. Whether you look at the total market, or simply the stabilized properties, second quarter occupancy took a small dip, according to recent numbers from NIC. Truth be told, I was hoping for a slight increase after a relatively modest flu season, even though it did seem to linger. But NIC’s numbers are at the midpoint of the quarter, so things could be more positive by now. It is still assisted living that is experiencing the continuing problems, dropping 20 basis points sequentially to 87.7% for stabilized communities, but 85.1% when the rest are included. One could look on the bright side and... Read More »