NIC: Senior Housing Occupancy Ticks Up in Q1

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The National Investment Center for Seniors Housing and Care, Annapolis, Md., found senior housing occupancy gained 0.4 percentage point in Q1 to reach 89.5%.

That marks the 19th consecutive quarter of increasing occupancy rates.

New development continues to lag growing demand. The number of occupied senior housing units increased by more than 3,000 in Q1 to total 637,000. In contrast, new units under construction fell to the lowest level since 2012. Year-over-year inventory growth hit a record low of 0.4% in Q1.

The analysis noted that senior housing occupancy is on track to surpass 90% before the end of 2026.

By sector, independent living occupancy was above 91% and assisted living occupancy was 87.9%. However, active adult communities saw a 0.7 percentage-point-decline to 91.2%.

By market, Boston had the highest occupancy rate, at 93.6%, followed by Baltimore (91.8%) and San Francisco (91.6%). The lowest rate was in Atlanta, at 86%, followed by Miami at 86.2% and Las Vegas at 87%.

“We aren’t yet seeing new development pick up, and the bottleneck is largely on the capital side, not from lack of demand,” said Lisa McCracken, NIC’s head of research and analytics. “With elevated costs for labor and materials, and property valuation dynamics, many groups simply aren’t ready to pull the trigger on projects just yet. As a result, investors favor acquiring existing properties over new construction, which puts pressure on the availability of senior housing for the consumer.”