Sources & method
Where every number on this site comes from, and exactly how the estimated figures are calculated.
National figures
National averages are published figures, dated to source. Assisted living, memory care, independent living, and the in-home hourly rate come from A Place for Mom's 2026 cost data. Nursing home medians and the non-medical hourly rate come from the CareScout 2025 Cost of Care Survey.
| Care type | Monthly | Annual | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assisted living | $5,830 | $69,960 | Survey |
| In-home care | $2,771 | $33,252 | Survey |
| Independent living | $3,520 | $42,240 | Survey |
| Memory care | $6,999 | $83,988 | Survey |
| Nursing home (semi-private) | $9,581 | $114,972 | Survey |
| Nursing home (private) | $10,798 | $129,576 | Survey |
State figures
Assisted living costs for all 50 states and the District of Columbia are published state averages, not estimates. They are the one state-level number on this site marked Survey.
State figures for every other care type are marked Modeled. They are calculated as:
state cost = national monthly cost × (state assisted living cost ÷ national assisted living cost)
In plain terms: a state whose assisted living is 20% above the national average is assumed to run about 20% above the national average for nursing homes and in-home care too. This is a reasonable approximation because regional labor cost drives all of these settings, but it is an approximation. Real nursing home costs vary more between states than assisted living does, so treat modeled figures as directional. Where a precise number matters, get a direct quote or use the CMS data linked below.
Payment and eligibility figures
Medicaid long-term care thresholds (about $2,982 monthly income and $2,000 in countable assets for an individual) follow the federal baseline used by most states, based on 300% of the $994 2026 SSI rate. States set their own rules and offer different waivers.
Sources
| Publication | Link |
|---|---|
| A Place for Mom — Assisted Living Costs by State (2026) National averages and the state-by-state assisted living table. Proprietary data, page updated July 29, 2026. | Source → |
| A Place for Mom — Cost of Memory Care (2026) National average memory care cost and the state low/high range. | Source → |
| CareScout — 2025 Cost of Care Survey National medians for nursing home (semi-private and private) and non-medical in-home care; survey covers 434 regions. | Source → |
| CareScout — 2025 Cost of Care Survey results (press release) Survey methodology and annual figures. | Source → |
| CMS — Nursing Home Provider Data Catalog Official per-facility quality, staffing, ownership and penalty data. The basis for the facility directories planned for this site. | Source → |
| CMS — Five-Star Quality Rating System How CMS rates nursing homes (overall, health inspections, staffing, quality measures). | Source → |
| KFF — Medicaid eligibility limits for long-term care State income and asset limits; most states use 300% of the SSI rate and a $2,000 individual asset limit. | Source → |
Facility-level data
The nursing home directory is not modeled and not estimated. Every facility record comes straight from the CMS Provider Data Catalog (dataset 4pq5-n9py), the same source CMS uses for the Five-Star Quality Rating System. Nothing on those pages is calculated by this site.
What the CMS export provides, per facility: overall, health inspection, staffing, and quality-measure star ratings; certified bed count and average daily census; ownership type and chain affiliation; adjusted and reported nurse staffing hours per resident per day; registered nurse, nursing staff, and administrator turnover rates; the count of health deficiencies cited in the most recent inspection cycle; civil money penalties, payment denials, and total penalty counts; and the abuse icon and Special Focus Facility status flags.
Two caveats worth stating. First, CMS star ratings are a regulatory composite, not a consumer review — a five-star home is not necessarily the right home for a particular person. Second, the directory covers nursing homes only. Assisted living, memory care, and in-home care are licensed and inspected by individual states, and no comparable national facility dataset exists, so those care types appear on this site only as the state and national averages described above.
What is not yet here
Nursing home prices are not published by CMS, so facility pages carry quality and compliance data but not a per-facility rate. Private cost-report-derived pricing datasets exist and may be added later.
Figures are updated when the underlying publications release new editions, typically annually. If a number here disagrees with a community's actual quote, the quote wins: this site reports averages, and no two residents pay the same price.