Care Facility Cost Comparison by State — Home Care, Assisted Living & Nursing Home Rates
Cost figures: CareScout Cost of Care Survey 2025 (prices collected July through November 2025, published March 2026). Page updated November 2026.
Quick Answer
National median monthly costs in the CareScout 2025 survey: assisted living $6,200, in-home non-medical care (44 hours a week) $6,673, a semi-private nursing home room $9,581 and a private nursing home room $10,798. State medians vary widely: a semi-private room is $5,627 a month in Texas and $15,528 in New York. Medicare does NOT pay for long-term custodial care.
| Care Type | California (Monthly) | California (Annual) | US National Median (Mo) |
|---|---|---|---|
| In-Home Non-Medical Care (44 hrs/wk) | $7,627 | $91,524 | $6,673 |
| Assisted Living Community | $7,000 | $84,000 | $6,200 |
| Adult Day Health Care (5 days/wk) | $2,037 | $24,444 | $2,058 |
| Nursing Home — Semi-Private Room | $12,167 | $146,004 | $9,581 |
| Nursing Home — Private Room | $15,178 | $182,136 | $10,798 |
Does Medicare Pay for Long-Term Care?
No. Original Medicare and Medicare Advantage do NOT cover custodial long-term care in assisted living or nursing homes. Medicare covers only short-term skilled nursing care (up to 100 days) following a qualifying 3-day inpatient hospital stay. Long-term care is paid out-of-pocket, via long-term care insurance, or by Medicaid once financial thresholds are met.
Source: CareScout Cost of Care Survey 2025 (data collected July through November 2025). These are medians. Verify actual local facility rates directly.
Long-term care is one of the largest unbudgeted expenses facing American families. Families often assume Medicare will cover assisted living or nursing home stays—only to discover Medicare pays zero for custodial care. State costs vary by over 100% depending on geographical labor costs, facility licensing laws, and occupancy rates. We built this tool to let you compare monthly and annual cost medians across all 50 states for every primary senior care option.
- Families evaluating whether an aging parent can afford assisted living or in-home care services long-term.
- Seniors planning ahead for retirement housing who want accurate state-level cost benchmarks.
- Caregivers exploring family financial assistance alongside our Family Caregiver Cost Calculator and Do I Need Care Options Wizard.
No Account. No Sign Up.
Use the tool instantly — no email, no password, nothing to create.
We Never Sell Your Data.
Your inputs are used only to generate your result. We do not share, store, or sell any information you enter.
Fully Independent.
Seniors Audit is not affiliated with any insurance company, government agency, or data broker. We have no financial interest in your coverage choices.
How to Use the Senior Care Facility Cost Comparison Tool
Selecting the right long-term care setting requires balancing clinical care needs with long-term financial sustainability. Follow these four steps to analyze state care benchmarks and build a realistic care budget.
- Step 1 — Select your state of residence. Select the state where care will be provided. Care costs depend heavily on regional cost-of-living index numbers and state-mandated staffing ratios for facilities.
- Step 2 — Compare monthly costs across four primary care settings. Review side-by-side medians for in-home non-medical care, assisted living communities, adult day health care, and semi-private and private rooms in nursing homes. Where the survey has no figure for a state, the tool says "Not reported".
- Step 3 — Evaluate annual care expenditure. Read the annual column, which is the monthly median times 12, and multiply it by how long you expect care to last. Your own timeline may be much shorter or longer than average.
- Step 4 — Cross-reference payment coverage rules. Review which care settings accept private pay, long-term care insurance (LTCI), Veterans Aid & Attendance, or Medicaid spend-down programs.
💡 Pro Tip for Medicare & Medicaid Planning
Medicare myth alert: Original Medicare (Parts A & B) pays only for up to 100 days of skilled nursing care following a 3-consecutive-day inpatient hospital stay. It covers $0 for ongoing assistance with Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) such as bathing, dressing, or eating. Medicaid pays for long-term nursing home custodial care, but only after an individual has spent down their countable assets to state threshold limits (typically $2,000 for a single person).
Senior Living & Care Facility Terminology Defined
Long-term care providers use specific industry and legal classifications to describe care levels. Review this reference table to understand what each term means.
| Term / Abbreviation | Full Official Name | Detailed Plain-English Definition |
|---|---|---|
| Assisted Living | Assisted Living Facility (ALF) | A residential housing facility for seniors who need help with daily activities (bathing, meals, medication management) but do not require 24/7 skilled nursing care. |
| Skilled Nursing (SNF) | Skilled Nursing Facility / Nursing Home | A licensed healthcare facility providing 24-hour medical supervision, physical therapy, and intensive nursing care administered by registered nurses (RNs). |
| Memory Care | Specialized Memory Care Unit | A secure, specialized residential unit within an ALF or nursing home designed specifically for individuals with Alzheimer's disease or vascular dementia. |
| ADLs | Activities of Daily Living | Six basic daily self-care tasks: bathing, dressing, eating, transferring (moving from bed to chair), toileting, and maintaining personal hygiene. |
| Custodial Care | Non-Medical Personal Care | Care that helps individuals with basic ADLs but does not require medical staff. Medicare does NOT cover custodial care in any setting. |
| Home Health Aide | Licensed Home Health Aide (HHA) | A trained professional who visits a senior's personal home to assist with personal care, vital sign monitoring, and light therapy exercises. |
| Respite Care | Short-Term Caregiver Relief Care | Temporary care provided in a facility or home to give primary family caregivers a break for several days or weeks. |
Illustrative Examples (hypothetical) — Case Scenarios — Comparing Senior Care Costs
This is a hypothetical example, not a real person.
Arthur, age 81, was paying about $5,893 a month for 40 hours a week of paid in-home help for his wife Helen, who has mobility challenges, at $34 an hour, close to Ohio's 2025 median of $6,483 a month for 44 hours a week. Home upkeep and meals were becoming overwhelming.
| Cost Factor | Details & Monthly Expenditure |
|---|---|
| Home Health Care Cost | $5,893/mo ($34/hr × 40 hrs/wk) + $1,500/mo home utilities/taxes = $7,393/mo |
| Assisted Living Quote (Ohio) | $6,103/mo, the Ohio 2025 median (private 1-bedroom apartment, meals, housekeeping & basic care) |
| Financial Result | ✅ Assisted living saved about $1,290/mo of combined living costs |
| Care Outcome | ✅ 24/7 staff availability & reduced caregiver burnout for Arthur |
Takeaway: Always calculate total home maintenance costs alongside home care fees when comparing against assisted living quotes. Evaluate family caregiver costs with our Family Caregiver Cost Calculator.
Grace, age 85, required skilled nursing care following a severe hip fracture. Her private savings were $45,000, and private-pay nursing home rates in Florida were near the state's 2025 median of $10,342 a month for a semi-private room.
| Planning Factor | Details & Spend-Down Timeline |
|---|---|
| Monthly Nursing Home Rate | $10,342/month (Private Pay, Florida 2025 semi-private median) |
| Private Savings Remaining | $45,000 |
| Spend-Down Horizon | About 4.2 months to spend down to Florida's $2,000 Medicaid asset limit ($45,000 − $2,000 = $43,000, divided by $10,342) |
| Medicaid Transition | ✅ Applied for Florida Institutional Care Program (ICP) Medicaid in month 4 |
Takeaway: Plan for Medicaid spend-down well in advance of private asset exhaustion.
Hypothetical scenarios built on CareScout Cost of Care Survey 2025 state medians. The two examples are not real people, and your local rates may differ.
Where These Care Cost Figures Come From and How to Read Them
Every number in the tool comes from the CareScout Cost of Care Survey for 2025. CareScout is a wholly owned subsidiary of Genworth Financial and says it has run the survey for more than 20 years. Prices were collected from July through November 2025, and the results were published in March 2026. This is an industry survey, not a government source. We use it because it is the most widely cited national source that reports prices by state and by care type.
| Care type | National median per month | National median per year | What the survey counts |
|---|---|---|---|
| In-home non-medical care | $6,673 | $80,080 | $35 an hour for 44 hours a week, 52 weeks a year (CareScout now groups homemaker and home health aide services under this heading) |
| Assisted living community | $6,200 | $74,400 | Monthly rate for a private one-bedroom unit, as reported by the community |
| Adult day health care | $2,058 | $24,700 | $95 a day, five days a week |
| Nursing home, semi-private room | $9,581 | $114,975 | $315 a day, 365 days a year |
| Nursing home, private room | $10,798 | $129,575 | $355 a day, 365 days a year |
Medians, not averages or quotes
A median is the middle price: half of the prices CareScout found were higher and half were lower. A community in a large city, or one with extra services, can charge far more than the median for its state. A quoted rate may also not include every charge. Treat these figures as a starting point for a budget and ask each provider for a written rate sheet. The annual column in the tool is the monthly median times 12, so it can differ from CareScout's own annual table by a few dollars.
Why some cells say "Not reported"
CareScout lists some states as N/A for certain care types. In the 2025 tables, for example, a private nursing home room in Alaska is listed as N/A, and adult day health care is N/A in Delaware, Idaho, South Dakota, Vermont and West Virginia. The tool shows "Not reported" in those cases instead of filling in an estimate. The 2025 state tables also do not list Washington, D.C., and the survey does not report memory care as a separate care type.
Why the numbers changed from older versions of this page
Earlier versions of this tool showed an older survey's figures. The tool now uses the 2025 survey throughout, so the national semi-private room median is $9,581 a month and the private room median is $10,798 a month. Care prices have risen year over year: CareScout reports increases of 5% for assisted living, 3% for in-home care, 2% for a semi-private room and 1% for a private room compared with the 2024 survey.
Common Care Cost Mistakes — And How to Avoid Them
Assuming Medicare Will Pay for Long-Term Assisted Living
Many families assume Medicare pays for assisted living or extended nursing home stays. It does not. Medicare covers only short-term skilled care following a qualifying inpatient hospital stay.
The fix is to build your care budget around private funds, long-term care insurance, or state Medicaid programs.
Not Factoring in Extra Care Tier Add-Ons in Assisted Living
Assisted living facilities quote a base rent, but often charge tiered monthly add-ons on top of base rent for medication management, bathing help or incontinence care. The CareScout median reflects the base monthly rate for a private one-bedroom unit, so your total can be higher.
The fix is to ask for a written "Care Level Point Assessment" before signing any facility lease contract.
Official Government & Industry Sources
| Source Name | What We Used It For | Direct Link |
|---|---|---|
| CareScout Cost of Care Survey 2025 | National and state monthly median costs for in-home non-medical care, assisted living, adult day health care and nursing home rooms (prices collected July through November 2025) | CareScout Cost of Care |
| ACL — Administration for Community Living (LongTermCare.gov) | Federal long-term care statistics, Medicaid rules, and eldercare planning guides | ACL LongTermCare.gov |
| Eldercare Locator (U.S. Administration on Aging) | Federal agency directory linking seniors to local Area Agencies on Aging (AAA) | Eldercare Locator |
Seniors Audit is an independent educational platform. We do not accept referral fees or commissions from care facilities.
Frequently Asked Questions About Care Facility Costs
What is the average cost of assisted living in the United States?
The national median cost of an assisted living community is $6,200 per month ($74,400 per year) in the CareScout 2025 Cost of Care Survey, up 5% from the year before. State medians in that survey range from $4,369 a month in Mississippi to $12,096 in Hawaii, and prices vary by city and by the care level a community charges for.
What is the average cost of a nursing home?
In the CareScout 2025 Cost of Care Survey, the national median for a semi-private nursing home room is $9,581 per month ($114,975 per year, or $315 a day), and the median for a private room is $10,798 per month ($129,575 per year, or $355 a day). State medians range widely: for a semi-private room, from $5,627 a month in Texas to $15,528 in New York, and $27,831 in Alaska.
Does Medicare pay for assisted living or nursing home care?
Medicare does NOT pay for long-term custodial care in assisted living or nursing homes. It pays up to 100 days of medically necessary skilled nursing care after a 3-day inpatient hospital stay.
When does Medicaid start paying for nursing home care?
Medicaid pays for nursing home care once a senior meets state-defined clinical criteria and spends down countable assets to state income/asset limits (typically $2,000 for an individual).
What is the difference between assisted living and a skilled nursing facility?
Assisted living provides assistance with daily living (meals, bathing, meds) in an apartment setting. Skilled nursing facilities provide round-the-clock clinical medical and nursing care.
Are memory care facilities more expensive than regular assisted living?
Memory care usually costs more than standard assisted living because of added staffing, secure building features and dementia programming, but the amount varies by community. The CareScout survey does not publish a separate memory care price, so this tool does not show one. Ask each community for its memory care rate sheet and compare it with its assisted living base rate and care-level fees.
How do I find care facilities in my area and compare their actual rates?
Use the official federal Long-Term Care website (longtermcare.acl.gov) or contact your local Area Agency on Aging via eldercare.acl.gov.
What is the CareScout Cost of Care Survey, and what year is the data?
The Cost of Care Survey is an annual industry survey of long-term care prices. CareScout, a wholly owned subsidiary of Genworth Financial, conducts it and reports that it has run the survey for more than 20 years. The 2025 edition collected prices from July through November 2025 and was published in March 2026. It is an industry survey, not a government source, and the figures are medians, so half of the prices it found were higher and half were lower.
Why does the tool not show memory care or Washington, D.C.?
The 2025 CareScout state tables cover the 50 states and do not list Washington, D.C. They also do not report memory care as its own care type. We show only figures the survey publishes. Where the survey lists a state as not available for a care type, such as a private nursing home room in Alaska, the tool shows "Not reported" instead of an estimate.
Other Free Senior Living & Caregiving Tools
About This Educational Estimate: This tool is for educational purposes only. Seniors Audit uses the official formulas published by Administration for Community Living (ACL) & CareScout, but results are estimates based on the information you entered. Rules, rates, and eligibility thresholds change annually and vary by individual circumstance.
Always verify your specific result directly with Administration for Community Living (ACL) & CareScout at 1-800-677-1116 or at longtermcare.acl.gov before making enrollment, coverage, or financial decisions.
If you have Medicare questions, a free SHIP counselor in your state can review your specific situation at no cost — find yours at shiphelp.org.
Seniors Audit is independent and not affiliated with any government agency or insurance company. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to any government agency, insurance company, or financial services firm. All calculations use the official formulas and current figures published by the agencies listed above. We do not receive payment for referrals, leads, or any action taken by visitors to this site. Last reviewed: November 2026.
Before Comparing Costs, Check Whether Medicaid Changes Your Numbers
If Medicaid pays for nursing home care in your state, the actual out-of-pocket cost you see in this comparison changes significantly. Use our free Medicaid Eligibility Calculator to find out whether the person you are planning for qualifies — it checks the 2026 income and asset limits for your specific state.
Check Medicaid Eligibility →Want to See How Long Your Savings Would Cover These Costs?
Once you know the care cost for your state or region, the next question families always ask is: how long will our savings actually last at that rate? Our free Savings Runway Calculator combines the care cost with your income and savings to give you a months-of-coverage estimate — with a specific flag when Medicaid eligibility may begin.
Try the Savings Runway Calculator →