Healthcare REITs span the widest quality range of any sector we grade: from Welltower, the best-performing large REIT in the market, to Medical Properties Trust, its most instructive disaster. The unifying force is demographics (the 80+ population is compounding while senior housing construction sits near record lows), and the dividing line is business model: operating upside versus fixed leases versus government reimbursement. All ten graded names, ranked with live data.
| # | REIT | Grade | Yield | Market Cap | Occupancy | Credit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Welltower (WELL) | A 88 | 1.28% | $163.5B | — | A- |
| 2 | American Healthcare REIT (AHR) | B 82 | 1.84% | $10.5B | — | — |
| 3 | Ventas (VTR) | B 79 | 2.20% | $46.6B | — | BBB+ |
| 4 | CareTrust REIT (CTRE) | B 78 | 3.55% | $9.6B | — | — |
| 5 | Omega Healthcare Investors (OHI) | B 74 | 6.89% | $14.8B | — | BBB- |
| 6 | National Health Investors (NHI) | B 74 | 4.94% | $3.6B | — | BBB- |
| 7 | Sabra Health Care REIT (SBRA) | B 73 | 5.81% | $5.3B | — | — |
| 8 | Healthpeak Properties (DOC) | B 72 | 5.66% | $14.9B | — | BBB+ |
| 9 | LTC Properties (LTC) | C 67 | 5.93% | $2.0B | — | — |
| 10 | Sila Realty Trust (SILA) | C 62 | — | $1.7B | — | — |
| 11 | Healthcare Realty Trust (HR) | C 60 | 4.74% | $6.9B | — | — |
| 12 | Strawberry Fields REIT (STRW) | C 60 | 4.58% | $191M | — | — |
| 13 | Community Healthcare Trust (CHCT) | C 58 | 10.76% | $507M | — | — |
| 14 | Universal Health Realty Income Trust (UHT) | C 58 | 7.06% | $586M | — | — |
| 15 | Diversified Healthcare Trust (DHC) | D 48 | 0.45% | $2.1B | — | — |
| 16 | Medical Properties Trust (MPT) | D 45 | 7.53% | $2.8B | — | — |
Grades follow the published REIT Rankings methodology. Yields and market caps update automatically with market data.
How to Read This Ranking
The top tier is the senior housing operating story: Welltower (88) leads on growth, balance sheet, and platform; American Healthcare REIT (82) is the breakout with nine straight quarters of double-digit NOI growth; Ventas (79) offers the same wave at a discount multiple. The middle is durable income: CareTrust’s unbroken dividend growth, Omega’s recovering 5.9% yield, NHI’s conservatism, Sabra’s balance, Healthpeak’s covered 6% from medical office. The bottom is earned: LTC’s thin cushion mid-pivot and MPT’s post-Steward wreckage, which our hard overrides grade without sentiment.
The Sector’s Master Risks
Reimbursement policy governs every skilled nursing dollar (Medicaid, Medicare, staffing mandates hit all operators simultaneously). Operating exposure (SHOP/RIDEA) converts landlords into partial operators, magnificent in an upcycle, painful when labor costs spike. And operator concentration failures (Steward at MPT, the pandemic-era crises at OHI and SBRA) remain the recurring sector accident. Grade weightings punish thin coverage and concentration for exactly these reasons.