Assisted Living
Market Fundamentals.
National occupancy, cap rates, rent trends, and transaction data —
updated quarterly by Crawford Commercial.
National ALF Occupancy Recovery
Quarterly occupancy rates from Q1 2024 through Q1 2026 — steady recovery with the strongest gains in Sun Belt markets.
What the Data
Is Telling Us.
Occupancy recovery continues.
National assisted living occupancy reached 88.1% in Q1 2026, up 1.4 percentage points year-over-year and now within 2 points of pre-2020 peaks. Recovery is strongest in Sun Belt markets.
Cap rates are compressing — but selectively.
Stabilized assets in primary markets now trade at 6.0–7.5%, while value-add and secondary market assets remain at 7.5–9.0%. The spread between quality tiers is widening.
Transaction volume surged 23% YoY.
Q1 2026 saw $2.1B in senior housing transactions nationally. Buyers are moving faster — median days on market dropped to 142, down 18 days from Q1 2025.
Operator margins are improving despite cost headwinds.
Top-quartile operators posted 32.4% NOI margins in Q1, up 1.2 percentage points YoY. Rate increases are outpacing staffing cost inflation for the first time since 2021.
Insurance remains the wildcard.
Property and liability insurance costs rose 8.3% YoY nationally, with Florida and California seeing double-digit increases. This is the single biggest margin headwind for operators in 2026.
State-by-State
Market Data.
Facility counts, occupancy rates, average monthly rates, cap rate ranges, and growth trends — broken down by state.
Capital Markets Snapshot
Operator Intelligence
Get the Full Q1 2026 Report.
Unlock state-by-state data, capital markets insights, and operator intelligence. Free — just tell us who you are.
Want owner contact data, weekly updates, and custom market reports?
Subscribe to Crawford Intelligence