NIC Notes

Insights in Seniors Housing & Care

Beth Mace and Omar Zahraoui

Beth Burnham Mace is the Chief Economist and Director of Outreach at the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC). Prior to joining the staff at NIC, she served as a member of the NIC Board of Directors for 7 years and chaired NIC’s Research Committee. Ms. Mace was also a Director at AEW Capital Management and worked in the AEW Research Group for 17 years. While at AEW, Ms. Mace provided primary research support to the organization’s core and value-added investment strategies and provided research-related underwriting in acquisition activity and asset and portfolio management decisions. Prior to joining AEW in 1997, Ms. Mace spent ten years at Standard & Poor’s DRI/McGraw-Hill as the Director of the Regional Information Service with responsibility for developing forecasts of economic, demographic, and industry indicators for 314 major metropolitan areas in the U.S. Prior to working at DRI, she spent three years as a Regional Economist at the Crocker Bank in San Francisco. Ms. Mace has also worked at the National Commission on Air Quality, the Brookings Institution and Boston Edison. Ms. Mace is a member of the National Association of Business Economists (NABE), ULI’s Senior Housing Council, the Urban Land Institute and New England Women in Real Estate (NEWIRE/CREW). In 2014, she was appointed a fellow at the Homer Hoyt Institute and was awarded the title of a “Woman of Influence” in commercial real estate by Real Estate Forum Magazine and Globe Street. Ms. Mace is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College (B.A.) and the University of California (M.S.). She has also earned The Certified Business Economist™ (CBE), which is the certification in business economics and data analytics developed by NABE. The CBE documents a professional’s accomplishment, experience, abilities, and demonstrates mastery of the body of knowledge critical in the field of economics and data analytics.

Omar Zahraoui, Principal at the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC), is a seniors housing research professional with expertise in providing quantitative analysis and insights on seniors housing & care market data; building new products and reporting capabilities, including dashboards and proformas for clients and internal stakeholders; and implementing new processes and data solutions. Prior to his current role, Omar worked as a data analyst, at Calpine Corporation, supporting the development of new-business strategy initiatives, analyzing sales and financial data, and developing statistical modeling of consumers’ behaviors to drive business performance. Omar holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with concentrations in Finance and Management, a Master in Corporate Finance from IAE Lyon School of Management at Jean Moulin Lyon III University in France, and a Master of Science in Management Information Systems and Data Analytics from Pace University.


Actual Rates  |  NIC MAP Data  |  NIC MAP Vision  |  Senior Housing

Exploring the Interplay Between Inflation, Rate Growth, Demand and Occupancy in Senior Housing

By: Beth Mace and Omar Zahraoui  |  March 09, 2023

 An In-Depth Analysis of NIC MAP Vision Actual Rates Data Executive Summary  Through this in-depth analysis, we hope to shine a spotlight on the relationship between inflation, the pace of growth seen in-place actual rates, demand and occupancy. Actual in-place rates refer to effective rates or the rates that are “actually being paid” to live in senior housing. This is often not the same as the asking or listing rate that may be advertised or listed in a brochure. 

COVID-19  |  Market Trends  |  Skilled Nursing

Skilled Nursing – Keeping the Occupancy Recovery on Track

By: Beth Mace and Omar Zahraoui  |  June 06, 2022

A recent NIC Notes blog titled “Market Fundamentals Amid Challenging Time for Skilled Nursing” published by NIC Analytics, evaluated supply and demand dynamics for freestanding skilled nursing properties within the 31 NIC MAP Primary Markets (Primary Markets) aggregate since 2017, and examined property-level occupancy distribution to get a better understanding of how widespread the effects of the pandemic have been.

Business Environment  |  COVID-19  |  Economic Trends  |  Market Trends  |  NIC MAP Vision

Assisted Living Demand Bouncing Back Relatively Swiftly

By: Beth Mace and Omar Zahraoui  |  March 17, 2022

The pandemic disruption in all its forms continues to test and challenge the senior housing sector. But the level of agility, preparedness and responsiveness among senior housing operators has never been higher and remains a tailwind for senior housing demand, as measured by the change in occupied stock. In this analysis, we examine the drop and subsequent recovery in the level of occupied units by majority property type since the pandemic began to influence the senior housing sector, over the period from 1Q 2020 to 4Q 2021, and across the 31 NIC MAP Primary Markets and the 68 NIC MAP Secondary Markets Aggregates.

Economic Trends  |  Market Trends  |  NIC MAP Vision  |  Senior Housing

3Q2021 NIC Analytics Demand Pulse Metric

By: Beth Mace and Omar Zahraoui  |  December 22, 2021

This blog features the NIC Analytics Demand Pulse Metric (DPM) for third quarter 2021 (3Q2021), a measure that examines senior housing demand (occupied units) for the NIC MAP® 31 Primary Markets and provides a window into the strength of a market based on occupied stock trends. The demand pulse metric pinpoints when 3Q2021 demand levels were last seen before the pandemic began to influence the senior housing sector in 1Q2020 and tracks demand growth and progress across the 31 Primary Markets.

-->