Senior living facilities took the brunt of the early COVID-19 pandemic. A fragile elderly population was no match for an aggressive novel virus. As a large percentage of residents succumbed to the virus, you had to wonder if the industry itself would succumb. After all, it’s hard to bounce back from headlines painting group homes and senior communities as death traps. It might be hard, but apparently it isn’t impossible, and new figures released by the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing and Care (NIC) indicate the senior housing market is doing just that.

According to third quarter 2023 NIC data, the average occupancy for senior housing overall stands at 84.4 percent, which is 6.6 percentage points above its pandemic-related low of 77.8 percent recorded in mid-2021 and only 2.7 percentage points below its pre-pandemic level of 87.1 percent in the first quarter of 2020. This marks the ninth consecutive quarter of occupancy growth.

In August, NIC introduc