Lack of transparency around pricing in the senior living industry is a known frustration. A simple web search reveals hundreds of articles lamenting how difficult it is to find the answer to a simple question when researching elder care communities: How much does it cost to live there? Would-be residents and their families crave this information. In fact, 68% of residents and 75% of family members and caregivers complain about a lack of pricing transparency within senior living communities. But seniors and their loved ones aren’t the only group grappling with a lack of clarity around costs. Senior living providers themselves struggle to acquire data on actual rates being charged within the industry. This information gap has resulted in operators paying a premium for capital—and passing that expense on to residents. To combat pricing obscurity, the National Investment Center for Seniors and Housing Care (NIC), partnering with Yardi, launched the Seniors Housing Actual Rates Initiative, which reveals actual rates and leasing activity submitted by senior living operators for the very first time. Many communities have already committed to providing monthly data feeds to NIC for the Actual Rates Initiative, covering more than 250,000 senior housing units nationwide. This new pricing data, available within the NIC Map Data service, will provide myriad benefits for senior housing and care sector providers—and some for residents—including: Reduced cost of capital Because senior housing is considered a “non-core” real estate class, operators and developers pay a premium for capital. Disclosing actual rates paid increases parity between senior housing and other traditional property types and could help lower the cost of capital. Reduced cost for consumers A lower cost of capital for investors and operators has a two-fold effect on consumers: First, with lower overhead, residents and families will see downstream cost savings. Additionally, a reduced cost of ownership has the potential to increase the customer base for senior housing, and with increased demand comes lower rents for residents. Benchmarking Through the NIC initiative, operators can anonymously feed their actual rates data, via Yardi software, then compare their pricing versus other communities on a national level. To date, operators use “rate card” pricing, driven by estimates rather than concreate pricing data. Shortened sales cycle NIC aims to gather enough data to report actual leasing rates at the metro level, allowing operators to adjust pricing accordingly and competitively discount rates, potentially converting prospects to residents more rapidly. NIC is the first to collect and report on this data, providing critical information to operators and investors, and Yardi is thrilled to be a partner. Visit nic.org/analytics/actual-rates-initiative to learn more about the Actual Rates...