An NIC MAP Vision summary report shows that senior housing occupancy rose in Q1 while its year-over-year rent growth rate fell.
Segmenting the market
The senior housing market is divided into several sub-markets. NIC MAP Vision divides properties into market segments by the type of units comprising the majority of those on the property. Unit types they consider are: independent living (IL), assisted living (AL) and nursing care (NC) units.
Q1 2024 results generally positive
The NIC MAP Vision summary gives a quarterly snapshot of the current state of the market for senior housing by reporting on data collected from the top 31 metro markets. The brief discussed here is a freely distributed extract from a more detailed report that is available to their paying clients.
In Q1, overall senior housing occupancy for the IL and AL sectors combined rose 0.5 percent to 85.6 percent. Occupancy for IL housing, which had been at around 90 percent before the pandemic, rose 0.3 percentage points to 87.1 percent. Occupancy in the AL sector, which had been around 85 percent before the pandemic, rose 0.6 percentage points to 84.0 percent.
NIC MAP Vision reported occupancy for NC properties was up 0.8 percentage points to 83.9 percent.
Senior housing rent growth slackens
The brief showed falling annual rent growth for the three senior housing market segments. Rents for IL properties were reported to rise 3.8 percent, down from a 4.4 percent rent growth rate last quarter. Rent growth for AL properties was 5.2 percent, down from 5.7 percent last quarter. Rent growth for NC properties was 4.0 percent, down from 4.3 percent last quarter.
NIC MAP Vision generally reports senior housing cap rates on a rolling 4-quarter basis, but no cap rate data was reported in the latest summary report. However, the Q4 2023 summary reported the overall cap rate for AL and IL property to be 6.2 percent, up 0.1 percentage point from the prior quarter.
In Q1, the overall 4-quarter rolling average price per unit for IL and AL properties was $112,814. This was down 5.1 percent from its level in the prior quarter and down 39 percent from its level in Q1 2023. The price per unit for NC properties was down 2.3 percent for the quarter and down 17 percent for the year to $90,204. Transaction volume for IL and AL properties was $1,259 million, up 24.4 percent from the $1,012 million reported in Q4 2023.
The NIC MAP Vision summary report is available here.
