CHICAGO-In a sign that the economy continues to recover, the fundamentals for the seniors housing sector in the United States improved once again in the third quarter of 2013, according to information recently released by the National Investment Center for the Seniors Housing & Care Industry.

NIC released its most recent data on Oct. 10 at its 23rd annual national conference in Chicago. Perhaps most importantly, the national occupancy rate for seniors housing properties continues to rise, reaching 89.3% in the Q3 in the top 31 metropolitan areas of the country. That's an increase of 0.3% from the end of Q2 and up 0.5% year over year.

In the country's top 100 markets, the seniors housing occupancy rate was 89.7%. The lowest occupancy reached during the Great Recession was 86.9%, reported in Q1 2010.