After weathering the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the senior housing sector is bouncing back with a "stellar" first half of the year.

"Many of the nation's elderly are becoming more comfortable moving back into, or entering, senior housing communities for the first time after delaying plans during the pandemic," says a new report from Marcus & Millichap. "Some older adults have cited an eagerness to experience the community-based aspects, after an extended period of social isolation. Others urgently need the care-based services that senior housing offers, with the friends and family able to provide at-home care during the early stages of the health crisis now returning to workplaces."

NIC Map Data Service research shows net absorption in the sector of more than 17,000 units in the first half of the year, a figure that brought the 12-month total to 48,600 units absorbed. That's twice the number of units relinquished in the prior year.