Assisted living costs $6,200/month nationally
That is $74,400/year at the median, up 5% from the prior year. Here is what the number covers, why your local price can differ, and three concrete ways to bring it down.
Data: CareScout Cost of Care Survey — 2025 national medians
Data: CareScout Cost of Care Survey — 2025 national medians — fieldwork July–November 2025.
What the monthly fee covers
The $6,200/month median covers a one-bedroom unit, meals, housekeeping, and a base level of help with daily activities such as bathing, dressing, and medication reminders. It does not automatically include memory care, higher care tiers as a resident's needs increase, transportation, or physical therapy — those are typically billed on top of it.
| Care type | Monthly | Annual |
|---|---|---|
| Non-Medical Caregiver (In-Home) | $6,673 | $80,080 |
| Adult Day Health Care | $2,058 | $24,700 |
| Assisted Living Communitythis page | $6,200 | $74,400 |
| Nursing Home — Semi-Private Room | $9,581 | $114,975 |
| Nursing Home — Private Room | $10,798 | $129,575 |
In money terms, $6,200 a month is the same as about 177 hours of in-home care — roughly 41 hours a week. Above that weekly hours level, hourly care costs more per month than this median.
Why your state's price differs
$6,200/month is a national median — it blends high-cost metro areas with lower-cost rural markets, and the survey itself warns that an individual provider can differ significantly from the median for its own market. This site does not yet publish verified state-level medians, so treat the national figure as a planning baseline and confirm with quotes from communities in your area.
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Three ways to lower the cost
- Ask for the base care tier in writing. Communities often quote a starting rate that assumes the lowest care tier, then move residents up after move-in. Get the tier your parent will actually need priced out before signing.
- Ask for the shared-room rate. Companion rooms are commonly priced below a private one-bedroom unit at the same community. The national survey figure on this page is for a private unit, so the shared rate is a real lever — ask for it explicitly.
- Run the numbers against in-home care first. Below about 41 hours a week, hourly in-home care at $35an hour costs less per month than this median. Use the calculator to find your own crossover point.
What families actually buy — and how to choose it
These are the categories that come up again and again when people try to keep someone at home longer. Prices change constantly, so instead of quoting a number that will be wrong next month, here is what to check before you buy.
Bed rails & fall protection
Falls are the most common reason a family moves from home care to a facility — and the most expensive to recover from.
- Check the weight limit and whether it fits the mattress thickness you have
- Adjustable height beats fixed if the bed is not a hospital bed
- Look for a model that folds down, so it does not block getting out
Walkers & rollators
A rollator with a seat and brakes lets someone stay mobile — and keep the hours of paid care lower.
- Measure the handle height with the person standing; wrong height causes back pain
- Test the brakes: loop brakes are easier for arthritic hands than squeeze brakes
- Width matters if hallways or bathroom doors are narrow
Bathroom safety
Most falls happen in the bathroom. Grab bars and a shower chair are the cheapest intervention on this page.
- Grab bars must be screwed into studs — suction cups are not a fall-prevention device
- A shower chair with a back and arms is easier to stand up from
- Non-slip mat inside and outside the tub
Medical alert systems
If the person is alone for part of the day, this is the difference between a fall and a fall found hours later.
- Decide between a landline base and cellular — no landline means cellular only
- Check the monthly cost, not just the device price; it is the recurring part that adds up
- Fall detection is a separate feature and usually costs more
Incontinence supplies
A recurring cost families rarely budget for — and one of the first things that pushes hours of care up.
- Match absorbency to overnight vs daytime use; one product for both wastes money
- Check the size chart by waist measurement, not clothing size
- Subscribe-and-save pricing is usually cheaper than one-off orders for this category
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. This does not change what we recommend — the selection criteria above are the same ones we would give a friend.
Frequently asked questions
Is $6,200/month for a private or a shared room?
The survey reports this as a monthly rate for a private, one-bedroom unit and does not publish a separate shared-room figure at the national level. Individual communities quote private, semi-private, and studio rates separately — ask which room type a quoted rate is for before comparing two communities.
Does $6,200/month include memory care?
No. Memory care is priced and reported separately from standard assisted living and typically costs more because of higher staffing ratios. This page's figure is for standard assisted living only, and it is not a number this site would apply to a memory care unit.
What is not included in the base monthly fee?
Medication management, higher care tiers as a resident needs more help, transportation, and some therapies are commonly billed on top of the base rate. The survey publishes no medians for those add-ons, so this site does not estimate them — ask a community for its full fee schedule rather than its headline rate.
How much did assisted living cost go up in the past year?
The survey recorded a 5% year-over-year increase for assisted living communities — from $5,900 to $6,200 a month at the national median — the largest increase among the five care types it tracks.
Next, price out the other options
- How much care costs rose this year
Four of the five care types went up between the last two surveys and one went down. Here is the change for each, in dollars rather than in adjectives — including the one that fell.
- In-home caregiver cost
Every care type here is priced per month except this one, which is billed by the hour. That one difference is what makes in-home care cheap at 15 hours a week and the most expensive option at 50.
- Adult day health care cost
The cheapest care type in the survey, and the one families most often skip past without pricing. Here is what a day of attendance buys compared with the same hours of in-home care.
- Nursing home costs
Two published rates, and a $14,600-a-year gap between them. Room type and billing period (31-day months cost more than 28-day months) are the two things that move this number.