(Cover detail from McKnight's Dealmaker's Handbook 2010)

Seniors housing and care transactions decreased by 17% in the first quarter compared with the same quarter last year, but dollars committed increased by 300%, according to new report.

“Each of the two largest transactions was more than double the dollar size of the largest acquisition in 2016, so it looks like the large deals are back in vogue,” said Steve Monroe of Irving Levin Associates.

Perhaps even more impressive is the $9.7 billion increase in dollar volume of publicly announced seniors housing and care acquisitions in the second quarter compared with the first quarter. That’s an increase of almost 600% over the $1.4 billion volume seen in the first quarter, according to the report.

The number of announced transactions in the second quarter, 75, approximated the number in the first quarter, 76, but the dollar volume change is the highest since the second quarter of 2014.

Two acquisitions — Sabra Health Care REIT’s acquisition of Care Capital Properties, with an equity market capitalization of approximately $4.3 billion, and Columbia Pacific Advisors’ $2.6 billion acquisition of Hawthorn Retirement Group — are driving the trend, according to the report. (See the articles below, under “Related Articles,” for more information.)

Three additional acquisitions, among them Kindred Healthcare’s skilled nursing division sale to private equity firm BlueMountain Capital Management, totaled more than $700 million each, Irving Levin said.