Senior housing and care stakeholders maintain a generally positive outlook for the year ahead, according to the results of a new industry sentiment poll from the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care.
More than 2,600 owners, operators and related industry professionals attending the 2024 NIC Fall Conference last month responded to the survey, which showed an average overall positive outlook. The average score was 4.14 on a scale of 1 (extremely negative) to 5 (extremely positive). That is slightly above the 4.11 rating from research conducted at the NIC Spring Conference in March.
Lisa McCracken, head of NIC’s research and analytics team, told McKnight’s Senior Living that the March outlook also was favorable but much less aligned across groups.
Of the September poll, she said, “We saw an uptick in the industry sentiment particularly coming from lenders/debt providers, transactional agents and developers, compared to March.”
Healthcare payers/providers had the most positive outlook in the most recent survey, at 4.37, followed by financial intermediaries (4.25), product/services companies (4.2), operators (4.19), and investors/equity providers and developers (both 4.18).
The lowest rankings in the September poll came from lenders and debt providers, who averaged a rating of 4, but that score was up from the 3.85 average in a March poll.
McCracken said the ratings support the “general sentiment” shared by conference attendees anecdotally.
“The movement by the Federal Reserve to cut rates the week prior to the conference definitely was a psychological boost to the sector,” she said. “It is going to take a number of rate reductions to really make a meaningful impact, but it showed movement in the right direction, and we definitely feel that played into the overall positive industry sentiment.”
NIC launched the poll at this year’s spring conference to measure industry sentiment over time.
