Results matter.
Reviewing some of the top quotes from Senior Housing News stories of 2025, this emerges as a key theme. Many leaders in the sector emphasized this message, whether talking about adopting new technologies like AI, new operating or pricing models, or pursuing other innovations meant to more effectively serve the incoming generation of consumers.
They said that while innovation is of critical importance, success must be judged by how well changes drive measurable improvements in the key metrics underlying a healthy senior living business, including net operating income (NOI).
As the year winds down, the excerpts below underscore the progress the sector made in the last 12 months as organizations carry bold ambitions into 2026.
“The silver tsunami is here. All you have to do is look at active adult. Now it’s time for the assisted living and memory care segment to benefit from that same silver tsunami and the front edge of the wave is next year as baby boomers turn 80.” — Brookdale Senior Living CEO Nick Stengle
Stengle was named CEO of the nation’s largest senior living operator in October, and has since been on a journey to position Brookdale to be ready to capture incoming demand. In 2025, Brookdale carved its holdings into six regions, each with a single leader overseeing all operations, supported by sales, clinical, human resources, recruiting, dining and asset management leaders.
The Brentwood, Tennessee-based senior living provider is also in the process of trimming its footprint of senior living properties to 550 communities while increasing its ownership stake in communities compared to the past.
While senior living operators continue to make occupancy and margin improvements in 2025, more leaders in the industry are speaking out about incoming demand. And that demand is already being felt across communities nationwide.
As Stengle pointed out, much of the demand story has so far played out in lifestyle-driven sectors like active adult and independent living; one story to keep close watch on in 2026 is the extent to which the demand wave is more pronounced for operators like Brookdale, which has focused its strategy on higher acuity levels.
“Ready to grow, struggling to build.” — National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC) Senior Principal Omar Zahraoui.
The senior living industry has experienced four consecutive years of demand outpacing the rate of new construction. While that has pushed average industry occupancy closer to 90% heading into 2026, development activity remains near or at record lows. NIC data shows that for every 10 new units that open in any given market, 31 units are absorbed.
Taken in total, the lack of new construction could put the industry in a difficult place, particularly given that the older buildings currently making up much of the senior living stock might not appeal to the incoming wave of potential new residents. Capital providers appear to still be largely waiting on the sidelines to make new development happen. But despite the lack of new growth across the board, operators have taken more measured approaches to redevelopment, undertaking repositionings or renovations to upgrade aging properties.
One thing is clear: With demand continuing to rise, the industry must get shovels in the ground sooner rather than later, or risk missing out on the lion’s share of the boomer demographic.
“If you think you’re getting the demographic wave without understanding what the industry is, you’re doing both your capital providers and operating partners a disservice.” – Atria Senior Living CEO Holly Belter-Chesser
The sector has touted demographic shifts as drivers of the strong demand for senior living, but providers must adapt operating models to manage greater clinical complexity while blending hospitality and lifestyle elements to meet the expectations of an independent, choice-driven boomer cohort.
Succeeding in those areas is easier said than done due to rising acuity, changes in length of stay and the way older adults seek out senior living options online. To this end, sales and marketing departments are shifting tactics to leverage social media, AI-search capabilities and online resources to allow for prospect education and rate transparency.
To Belter-Chesser’s point, such changes are necessary but also must be undertaken in a sophisticated way in order to drive results – not just in the form of rising occupancy but in stronger bottom-line numbers.
“We don’t need change for change’s sake, we need change that drives NOI that drives results,” she said.
“In stronger markets, you have more leeway, but ultimately, delivering quality care is what separates a mediocre or even failing property from a truly successful one. This is the new reality, welcome to the future.” — Pegasus Senior Living CEO Chris Hollister
Hollister made these comments after a recent data analysis by the American Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) found that most assisted living residents are over age 85 and that four in 10 residents live with some degree of dementia or cognitive decline, with average lengths of stay ranging between 22 months and 28 months.
Senior living companies have changed their levels of care systems while also increasing the frequency of resident health assessments to better place residents. Pegasus Senior Living has revamped its level of care system in AL and memory care by adopting a new electronic health record, increasing assessments and improving the menu of care offerings available to residents.
And Pegasus is hardly alone in such initiatives. As acuity rises, success is dependent not only on delivering high-quality care but on accurately charging for it.
“You need to have that fine-tuned, because at a certain point, if you’re fully occupied but only raising rent by 5% each year and not adjusting care levels often enough, your NOI can’t increase quickly especially as labor costs rise,” Health Dimensions Group CEO Erin Shvetzoff Hennessey said.
It’s a point that 12 Oaks Senior Living President Greg Puklicz echoed. 12 Oaks has adopted a more sophisticated way of defining levels of care and assigning points to them, leading to a 13.2% increase in level of care charges as of August 2025, compared to 2024.
“If we can’t streamline this and make it easier and smoother for our residents, they’ll find someone who can, and they just won’t come to us.” — Ascension Living CEO Erin Shadbolt
The senior living industry must think differently about its business model and make services more accessible for the incoming generation as aging-in-place options become more feasible and affordable.
Affordability remains a major factor preventing the industry from improving its penetration rate, currently between 10% and 12%, according to NIC data. Meanwhile, tools like home health services, telehealth, medication delivery services and other clinical offerings become more accessible.
One of the largest senior housing operators by unit count, Retirement Housing Foundation, announced earlier this year that the company cut ties with its market-rate portfolio and will focus exclusively on affordable senior housing services and development.
This year also saw senior living operators plan growth that include expansion of home-based services to extend the reach of their brands beyond the walls of their communities.
“One major challenge is cutting through the noise. A polished demo or buzzwords like ‘AI-driven’ aren’t enough, we need to show how the technology actually fits into real-world senior living operations.” — New Perspective Senior Living Co-CEO Chris Hyatt
This year saw senior living operators make some tough decisions on their technology partnerships as they seek new capabilities.
Many operators already depend on multiple platforms to manage functions such as customer relationship management (CRM), electronic health records and point-of-sale systems. Increasingly, senior living companies are looking for data that is portable, easy to interpret and able to “talk” across the various systems.
Senior living providers are also cautiously exploring the use of AI. They are seeking to improve workflow for staff and identify new ways to improve resident satisfaction, fall detection, ambient monitoring or using AI to craft summaries for families that hold promise.
But a recurring theme among the top quotes of the year is that operators must be disciplined and results-oriented while pursuing innovation. And with regard to tech, that means closely tying solutions to actual operational practices.
“Don’t let the software define your needs,” Juniper Communities CEO Lynne Katzmann said. “Find a software that works for your operations or to move your operations forward.”
“We’re at a point in time in the growth of the industry where things are accelerating, and so to be able to scale up and take on additional opportunities early in the cycle we think is a really important aspect to it.” — Sonida Senior Living CEO Brandon Ribar
The senior living industry saw many instances of rapid and expansive growth in 2025.
In February Apollo (NYSE: APO) agreed to acquire Bridge Investment Group, which owns 62 senior living communities as part of a larger real estate portfolio, in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $1.5 billion. A week earlier, Barings announced it is acquiring Artemis Real Estate Partners, a longtime senior housing investor with $11 billion in real estate assets under management in 2024.
In September LCS, one of the largest senior living operators in the country, entered into a strategic merger agreement with Vi, an operator with a track record of operating luxury life plan properties. In November, Sonida Senior Living (NYSE: SNDA) announced plans for a merger with CNL Healthcare Properties as part of a $1.8 billion deal that would create the eighth largest senior living ownership group by unit count, if approved. Earlier this month, Trilogy Health Services announced the acquisition of Kingston HealthCare, adding the company’s 14 senior living communities to Trilogy’s 130- senior living property portfolio.
The pace of senior living transactions has also increased this year as ownership groups aim to use dry powder to sweep up high-performing assets. As of October, Welltower (NYSE: WELL) announced $14 billion in senior housing acquisitions to acquire more than 700 communities this year. Since the middle of last year, Ventas (NYSE: VTR) has completed $4.1 billion in senior housing investments, as senior housing now accounts for half of the Chicago-based REIT’s net operating income (NOI). This comes as Ventas aims for “more aggressive growth” heading into 2026.
Taken together, these moves underscore CEO Brandon Ribar’s observation that the industry is entering an accelerated phase of growth, one in which scale and speed are becoming decisive advantages.
“It’s no longer about these keyword strategies. It’s about providing the best information for the models to prioritize my answer as most salient and trustworthy, and providing that to the families when they’re searching.” — A Place For Mom CEO Tatyana Zlotsky
In 2025, APFM shifted its focus from search-first approach in ranking keywords and pivoted to answers showing up from AI tools like ChatGPT or Gemini. This is important due to declining click-through behavior by consumers using search, especially as AI summaries become more common.
Looking ahead to 2026, operators must continue to go “beyond the hype” of AI. Providers should plan for families continuing to use AI tools when looking up information on senior living communities in their local or regional markets.
This means that operators should create clear descriptions of their care levels and services provided and offer first-hand stories and testimonials online that are easily accessible. This is in an effort to make operator content more accessible for consumers relying on AI tools rather than typical online search functions.
“In my role now, I want to be able to support our EDs and give them time to spend with their residents. You can’t help anybody or develop a really good plan until you actually know what the needs are.” — Harmony Senior Services CEO Traci Taylor-Roberts
The senior living industry saw sweeping leadership changes across organizations of varying sizes, with some organizations adopting co-leadership models while others hired seasoned senior living veterans with decades of operational experience to inform their C-suite roles.
Major operators including Brookdale, Maplewood Senior Living and Watermark Senior Living named new CEOs or co-CEOs, and mid-size operators also shuffled leaders to usher in the next generation. Civitas Senior Living named longtime president Cooper Vittitow as CEO. Harmony Senior Services named Roberts as CEO after decades of experience with varying operators.
Several of these new CEOs seem to exemplify a “player-coach” – that is, someone who has been on the front lines and brings a strong operational sensibility while also possessing strategic and leadership chops. Taylor-Roberts is one example, as she has held a wide variety of roles while rising through the ranks, including executive director as well as sales and regional positions.
Her quote highlights how her first-hand knowledge of what it takes to lead a community as an ED is informing her priorities as chief executive.
Incoming C-suite leaders are taking their positions at a crucial juncture for the industry, with demand surging, transformational AI technology booming and the development standstill posing potentially severe access challenges. Regardless of their backgrounds, their success will depend on being able to rally their locker rooms and their front offices – that is, be a respected leader for everyone working at the community level as well as the administrative and management levels of organizations.
