Customer Incentives Continue Unabated Amid Sluggish Seniors Housing Leasing Market
	Dementia Care Rollout Diversifies Revenue Streams at Horizon Bay
	Midwest Offers Most Bang for the Buck for Long-Term Health Care, Survey Shows

Heartened by a slight upswing in leasing activity, seniors housing owners and operators still aren’t taking any chances as they aggressively pour money into marketing programs to attract new residents and boost sagging occupancies.

Building owners continue to spend on advertising and promotions to convince seniors to sell their homes and move. Concessions are widely available too, including free rent, moving expenses, and loans. As a last resort, some continuing care communities are even buying their customers’ old houses to fill vacant apartments.

How can operators stem rising vacancies at independent living buildings? One solution comes from property manager Horizon Bay Retirement Living. The Tampa-based operator of 77 buildings is converting just over 200 independent living units to dementia care residences at seven developments, mostly in hard-hit real estate markets in the Sun Belt. Meanwhile, units at a San Antonio project that had been used for hospice care also are being converted to memory care units.

“We are one of the few operators with such heavy exposure to independent living,” says Steve Benjamin, president at Horizon Bay, which is privately held. “So diversifying our portfolio makes sense.”

The Midwest can lay claim to offering the most long-term care options at the lowest cost, according to the results of a survey by Genworth Financial (NYSE: GNW), while the Northeast and West Coast states generally offer fewer affordable alternatives. These are among the key findings of a national cost of care survey released by Richmond, Va.-based Genworth in late April.

The most comprehensive study of its kind, Genworth’s 2009 Cost of Care Survey covers more than 14,000 nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and home health and adult day health care providers in 331 regions across America.