Bob,
I believe UHT only has about 4% of their investments in nursing homes. They may have some in assisted living, but the nursing homes are bearing the worst of the government reimbursement cuts. UHT is probably a hybrid, with a majority being equity interests in the properties, but also with some mortgages owned.
When the REITs started to suffer a few years ago, the strongest sector by far was the manufactured homes facilities, figuring that they were recession proof. Now they are growing FFO slower and among the worst performing REIT sectors, along with nursing homes, and retail (internet competition worries). MHC, SUI and CPJ were the darlings and would be a good place to start you due diligence. ANL (formed by the combo of AIC and CAX) is cheap, but now that they have taken on their own sales organization as interest rates are rising, I'd wait for 2 or 3 earnings reports to see stabilization before investing.
Richard
p.s. I called the CFO of EPR (1-888-EPR-REIT) on Friday. It appears that some movie operators are having problems, but EPR isn't feeling the effects. They have 2 theaters with Edwards who recently declared bankruptcy. Verbally, they informed them that they want to continue the leases, but if they don't, they think they will be able to re-lease them at higher rates using an auction process. Personally, I think the operators are trying to get out of the non-stadium-type theaters, but EPR has only stadium-type seating. |
