What does assisted living actually cost?

The most recent national median is $6,200 a month, or $74,400 a year, from the CareScout Cost of Care Survey for 2025, up 5% on 2024. That is a base rate for a national median market. What a specific community charges depends on your metro, the apartment, and the care tier the resident is assessed into, so the published median is a starting point for the conversation rather than a budget.

Why is memory care more expensive than assisted living?

Memory care requires higher staff-to-resident ratios, a secured unit, and specialised training, so it is normally priced above standard assisted living at the same community. There is no reliable national median for memory care, because the major cost-of-care surveys do not measure it separately. Ask each community for its memory care rate and its care-tier schedule directly.

Does Medicare cover any of this?

Medicare covers short-term skilled nursing facility care, Medicare-certified home health visits, and outpatient medical care. Medicare.gov limits SNF coverage to 100 days per benefit period and normally requires a prior inpatient hospital stay of at least 3 days in a row, though that minimum can be waived for some Accountable Care Organizations and Medicare Advantage plans. Medicare does not cover assisted living rent, ongoing custodial care, or memory care.

Is long-term care insurance worth buying now?

Premiums rise steeply with the age at which you buy, so the same policy costs meaningfully more at 70 than at 60. Current hybrid life-insurance products with care riders have replaced most stand-alone long-term care policies. A financial planner who is independent of any single carrier can model the breakeven for a specific situation, which is the only version of this answer worth acting on.

How much does Medicaid pay a nursing home?

Medicaid nursing-home rates are set state by state, and states publish their own rate schedules. The state rate is almost always below the private-pay rate, which is why many facilities limit how many Medicaid beds they keep and prefer private-pay admissions. If Medicaid is a likely future payer, ask a community directly how many Medicaid beds it has and whether a resident who spends down can stay.

Pillar guide · Updated 2026

The Real Cost of Senior Living

What care actually costs, where the published medians stop being useful, and what to ask for instead.

CareScout 2025 Cost of Care Survey
What the medians leave out
5 FAQs

Quick answer

What does senior living actually cost?

The most recent national medians are from the CareScout (formerly Genworth) Cost of Care Survey for 2025: $6,200 a month for an assisted living community, $9,581 for a semi-private nursing-home room, $10,798 for a private room, $95 a day for adult day health care, and $35 an hour for a non-medical caregiver at home. The survey does not publish a national median for independent living or memory care. Medians also hide enormous local variation, and the brochure rate is not the bill: care-level adjustments and add-on services push the real number higher. Funding usually comes from a stack of private savings, VA benefits, long-term care insurance, and Medicaid.

The latest published numbers

National median costs at a glance

The most-cited source is the Cost of Care Survey that Genworth has published for two decades, now run under its CareScout brand. The current edition is the 2025 survey: CareScout states that "from July through November 2025, CareScout contacted 211,985 long-term care providers by phone and email to complete approximately 16,000 surveys including nursing homes, assisted living communities, adult day health facilities and home care providers." That 2025 edition was published in March 2026, and it is the newest data anyone has: there is no 2026 survey, and on the usual cadence there will not be one until early 2027. So treat any "2026 national median" you see quoted, here or anywhere else, as somebody's estimate rather than a survey finding.

U.S. national median cost of senior living by care setting, from the CareScout (formerly Genworth) Cost of Care Survey 2025.
Care setting	2025 national median	vs 2024	Notes
Non-medical caregiver at home	$35/ hour	+3%	$6,673/mo, $80,080/yr at 44 hrs/wk
Skilled nursing at home	$90/ hour	n/a	First reported in 2025
Adult day health care	$95/ day	-5%	$2,058/mo at 5 days/wk
Assisted living community	$6,200/ month	+5%	$74,400/yr
Nursing home, semi-private room	$9,581/ month	+3%	$315/day, $114,975/yr
Nursing home, private room	$10,798/ month	+1%	$355/day, $129,575/yr

Source: CareScout Cost of Care Survey, July through November 2025. A median masks enormous local variation, so use these as a reference point, not a budget.

Two things the table cannot tell you

There is no national median for memory care or independent living. CareScout does not survey them, and neither does any other source we would be willing to cite. Memory care is normally priced above standard assisted living at the same community because it needs more staff and a secured unit, but the size of that gap is set community by community. Ask each one for its memory care rate directly.

Homemaker and home health aide are no longer separate lines. CareScout merged them, noting that "due to price convergence, CareScout has streamlined its reporting; homemaker and home health aide services are now collectively classified as 'non-medical caregiver.'" Any article still quoting two different monthly figures for them is working from a pre-2025 edition.

One useful piece of arithmetic: at CareScout's median of $35 an hour, round-the-clock care at home would exceed $25,000 a month. That is our multiplication of their hourly rate, not a figure the survey publishes, and it is an upper bound rather than a quote you would receive. Agencies price 24-hour and live-in care on different structures entirely, which is why no one publishes a national median for it. Ask an agency directly. Even as a ceiling, it is the number that pushes most families toward a community.

The drivers

What actually moves the number

Geography

Land, labor, and licensing costs vary enormously state to state, and senior-care pricing follows them. In CareScout's 2025 state medians, assisted living runs from $4,369 a month in Mississippi to $12,096 in Hawaii. That spread is the largest single driver on this list, and it is why a national median is close to useless for planning. Look up your own state before you budget anything.

Level of care

Assisted living uses tiered pricing. A resident who needs help with one activity of daily living pays the base rate; a resident who needs help with most of them pays materially more. Ask for the community's actual tier schedule in writing, with the dollar amount attached to each tier, before you compare it to anywhere else.

Apartment + extras

A studio costs less than a one-bedroom, a second occupant adds a monthly fee, and continuing care retirement communities charge an entrance fee on top. AARP, citing NIC data, puts the average initial CCRC payment at about $402,000 and the range at $40,000 to more than $2 million, though those figures date from 2021. None of this is standardised, so get every element quoted as a separate line.

Not in the brochure rate

The add-ons families miss

The published base rate is not the bill. Every item below is charged on top at some communities and included at others, which is exactly why two communities quoting the same base rate can differ by a lot in practice. Ask for each one as a separate line on a written quote, then compare the totals rather than the headline rates.

Care level adjustments
Communities re-assess residents periodically and move them up tiers as needs change. Ask how often reassessment happens, who decides, and whether you can appeal.
Medication management
Usually billed above the base rate. Ask what the fee is and whether it changes with the number of medications.
Continence supplies + laundry
Some communities include them; others bill them monthly. Ask which, in writing.
Specialty diets
Diabetic or pureed diets sometimes carry an additional daily charge.
Transportation
Scheduled group outings are usually included. Medical-appointment rides outside those windows are often billed per trip.

The stack

How families actually pay

Most families assemble a stack rather than relying on one source. For a deeper look at the federal programs, see our Medicaid, Medicare & VA guide.

Largest
Private pay
Most assisted-living residents pay privately, drawing on savings, pensions, Social Security, and home-sale proceeds. NCAL reports that about 17% of residents rely on Medicaid for daily services, so Medicaid coverage of assisted living is far more limited than families expect. Note that every published figure counts current residents, not payer mix at move-in.
Limited
Long-term care insurance
A meaningful help if a policy is already in force, and a small slice of the national picture: ASPE estimates private insurance covers about 2.7% of lifetime long-term services and supports spending, and that fewer than 8% of Americans have bought a policy. Hybrid life-insurance products with a care rider have largely replaced stand-alone policies. Read the elimination period and the daily benefit cap before you count on a number.
Veterans
VA Aid & Attendance
For the year beginning December 1, 2025, VA's Maximum Annual Pension Rate with Aid and Attendance is $29,093 for a veteran with no dependents and $18,697 for a surviving spouse. VA pays the gap between countable income and that ceiling, not the full amount, and it pays the veteran or spouse rather than the facility.
Long-term
Medicaid
The primary payer for over 6 in 10 nursing-facility residents, according to KFF. HCBS waivers can fund care at home or in assisted living in most states, subject to waiting lists. Means-tested, with a 5-year look-back on asset transfers.
Medical only
Medicare
Pays for short-term skilled rehab and home health visits. Does not cover ongoing custodial care, assisted living, or memory care.

A family's planning math

A national median tells you almost nothing about your bill. Three numbers do, and you have to ask for all three, because none of them appears in a brochure and no published survey can supply them for you.

1. The all-in monthly quote

Not the base rate. The base rate plus the care tier the resident was actually assessed into, plus every add-on from the list above, itemised. Ask for it in writing, and ask which lines can change without you agreeing.

2. The rate history

Ask what the community raised its rates by in each of the last three years, and how often residents are reassessed into a higher care tier. A community that will not answer this is telling you something. CareScout's own survey put the national assisted-living median up 5% year on year, so a quote that assumes a flat rate is not a plan.

3. What happens when the money runs out

Decide before the move, not after. Ask whether the community accepts Medicaid at all, how many Medicaid beds it holds, and whether a resident who spends down can stay. For most assisted-living communities the honest answer is no, and the realistic path is a move to a nursing home that accepts Medicaid.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What does assisted living actually cost?: The most recent national median is $6,200 a month, or $74,400 a year, from the CareScout Cost of Care Survey for 2025, up 5% on 2024. That is a base rate for a national median market. What a specific community charges depends on your metro, the apartment, and the care tier the resident is assessed into, so the published median is a starting point for the conversation rather than a budget.
Why is memory care more expensive than assisted living?: Memory care requires higher staff-to-resident ratios, a secured unit, and specialised training, so it is normally priced above standard assisted living at the same community. There is no reliable national median for memory care, because the major cost-of-care surveys do not measure it separately. Ask each community for its memory care rate and its care-tier schedule directly.
Does Medicare cover any of this?: Medicare covers short-term skilled nursing facility care, Medicare-certified home health visits, and outpatient medical care. Medicare.gov limits SNF coverage to 100 days per benefit period and normally requires a prior inpatient hospital stay of at least 3 days in a row, though that minimum can be waived for some Accountable Care Organizations and Medicare Advantage plans. Medicare does not cover assisted living rent, ongoing custodial care, or memory care.
Is long-term care insurance worth buying now?: Premiums rise steeply with the age at which you buy, so the same policy costs meaningfully more at 70 than at 60. Current hybrid life-insurance products with care riders have replaced most stand-alone long-term care policies. A financial planner who is independent of any single carrier can model the breakeven for a specific situation, which is the only version of this answer worth acting on.
How much does Medicaid pay a nursing home?: Medicaid nursing-home rates are set state by state, and states publish their own rate schedules. The state rate is almost always below the private-pay rate, which is why many facilities limit how many Medicaid beds they keep and prefer private-pay admissions. If Medicaid is a likely future payer, ask a community directly how many Medicaid beds it has and whether a resident who spends down can stay.

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