The national median cost of assisted living was $6,200 a month ($74,400 a year) in 2025, for a private one-bedroom apartment, according to the CareScout Cost of Care Survey. State medians ranged from $4,369 in Mississippi to $12,096 in Hawaii. Your parent's actual bill depends on the apartment, the assessed level of care, and fees charged on top of base rent.
You have a tour booked, or a discharge planner has just said "assisted living," and you need to know whether your parent can afford it for one year, three years, or longer. The advertised "starting at" price rarely answers that. This post gives you the current national figures with their source, shows what the median does and doesn't include, and walks through how to get a real monthly number for your mom or dad.
What does assisted living cost per month right now?
The most widely cited national figure is the CareScout Cost of Care Survey (CareScout is owned by Genworth). Its 2025 survey, released in March 2026, found a national median of $6,200 a month for assisted living, or $74,400 a year. That works out to about $204 a day.
It helps to know what that number measures before you use it in a budget:
- Private pay, one-bedroom. Surveyors collected monthly private-pay rates for a one-bedroom unit, from basic care up to more substantial care. Where a community gave a range, the survey used the average of the high and low.
- A median, not an average. Half the surveyed rates were above it and half below.
- Collected July to November 2025. Surveyors completed 4,944 assisted living surveys, part of roughly 16,000 surveys across all care types, covering all 50 states and DC.
- Licensed communities of many kinds. Small group homes and large campuses both counted, because states license assisted living under many different names.
So the median is a fair starting point for "roughly what does this cost," but it isn't a quote. It won't show a memory care surcharge, a one-time community fee, or the jump when your parent moves to a higher care level. For your state's figure, see assisted living costs by state.
How does that compare with home care and a nursing home?
At the national median, assisted living costs less than a nursing home and about the same as a home care aide working 44 hours a week. The same 2025 survey gives these monthly medians:
| Type of care (2025 national median) | Monthly | What the figure assumes |
|---|---|---|
| Assisted living community | $6,200 | Private one-bedroom, private pay |
| Non-medical in-home caregiver | $6,673 | $35 an hour, 44 hours a week |
| Adult day health care | $2,058 | $95 a day, 5 days a week |
| Nursing home, semi-private room | $9,581 | $315 a day |
| Nursing home, private room | $10,798 | $355 a day |
Two cautions when you read this table. First, 44 hours a week is far from round-the-clock help, and your parent would still pay for housing, utilities and food at home, while assisted living provides room and board as part of the arrangement. Second, a nursing home is a different level of care, not just a pricier version of the same thing. Match the setting to your parent's needs first, then compare prices. The assisted living vs. in-home care post covers that decision.
How fast have prices been rising?
Unevenly, and in 2024 sharply. The national annual median for assisted living in the Genworth and CareScout surveys:
- 2023: $64,200 a year, up 1.4%.
- 2024: $70,800 a year, up 10%.
- 2025: $74,400 a year, up 5%.
If you are planning for a stay of several years, build in yearly increases rather than using today's rate for every year. Your parent's own community sets its increases under the residency agreement. Ask each community for its rate increase history over the last three years; a vague answer tells you something too.
What is in the monthly price, and what isn't?
Assisted living provides room and board, meaning housing, utilities and meals, together with help with daily activities. Beyond that, communities split the bill differently. Housekeeping, laundry, transportation and personal care (help with bathing, dressing, medications) may be in the base fee or charged separately, by care level or by points. Because of that variation, some states make communities write it down.
Virginia is a good example. Its required Assisted Living Facility Disclosure Statement asks every community to list the accommodations, services and care included in the base fee, the base fee itself, and every additional service not included, with its fee. Even if your parent isn't moving in Virginia, ask for the same three things in writing:
- What exactly does the base fee include?
- What is the base fee for the apartment we are considering?
- What costs extra, and what does each extra cost?
The CareScout survey also recorded whether communities charge a non-refundable community or entrance fee, a one-time charge at move-in. The costs families don't see coming post goes through the add-ons one by one.
Why two communities in one town can differ by thousands
When you gather quotes, expect a wide spread even within a few miles. The usual reasons:
- Apartment size and type. A studio, a one-bedroom and a companion suite are priced differently.
- Care level. After the move-in assessment, your parent is placed in a care level or assigned points. Two residents in identical apartments can pay very different amounts. See assisted living levels of care.
- Pricing model. An all-inclusive price looks higher than a tiered base rate but may include care that the tiered community charges for separately.
- Memory care. Memory care may be priced separately from standard assisted living; ask for its rates too.
- Location. State and metro area matter; the state medians alone span almost $8,000 a month.
How to get the real number for your parent
You need one figure per community: the full monthly cost at your parent's expected care level, plus one-time costs. Here is the order that gets you there fastest.
- Ask for the written fee schedule before or at the tour. Not the brochure: the price list, including care levels.
- Get an estimate of your parent's care level. Share recent health information and ask which level they would likely start at. The formal move-in assessment confirms it later.
- Price the next level up too. Needs can grow. Ask what the bill would be one level higher.
- List one-time charges. Community fee, deposits, move-in fees.
- Ask for the last three years of rate increases.
- Add outside costs. Pharmacy, Medicare premiums, phone, personal items. These don't appear on the community's bill but come out of the same money.
- Write it all into one comparison. Same rows for every community, so the nicest lobby doesn't win by default.
What to say to the sales or marketing director: "Before we go further, could you email me your current fee schedule, including every care level and one-time fee? Based on what I've told you about Mom, which care level would she likely start at, and what would her total monthly bill be? And how much have rates gone up each year for the last three years?"
The assisted living tour questions guide has the rest of the cost questions in a printable list.
Keep every quote in one place
Parent Move Plan includes 41 tour questions and a weighted comparison of 12 criteria, cost among them. The Complete version adds a shared costs log so siblings see the same numbers.
Build your plan in 2 minutesWho pays: a quick orientation
Medicare generally does not cover assisted living services or room and board, according to a 2026 GAO report. Medicaid programs in 44 states covered assisted living services as of March 2025, but Medicaid is not allowed to pay for room and board. Everything else comes from private sources: your parent's income and savings, sometimes the sale of a home, long-term care insurance, VA benefits, or family.
Each of those has its own rules and its own professional to ask. The overview in how families pay for assisted living lays them side by side so you can see which ones are worth checking for your parent.
Frequently asked questions
How much does assisted living cost per day?
The CareScout Cost of Care Survey puts the 2025 national median at about $204 a day, based on the annual median of $74,400 divided by 365. Communities rarely bill by the day, though. Most quote a monthly rate plus care charges.
Is assisted living cheaper than a nursing home?
At the national median, yes. In the 2025 CareScout survey, assisted living was $6,200 a month, while a semi-private nursing home room was $9,581 and a private room $10,798. The two settings provide different levels of care, so the right comparison depends on what your parent needs.
Does the monthly price include meals?
Meals are part of the room and board that assisted living provides, but what else the base rate covers varies by community. Ask for the written list of what the base fee includes. Some states, such as Virginia, require communities to disclose this on a standard form.
Does Medicare pay for any of it?
Medicare generally does not cover assisted living services or room and board. It may still cover other health care your parent receives while living there, such as hospice, according to the GAO.
Why do quotes from communities in the same town differ so much?
Apartment size, the level of care your parent needs, the pricing model (all-inclusive or tiered) and one-time fees all change the total. Compare the full monthly cost at your parent's assessed care level, not the advertised starting rent.
Sources
- CareScout: Cost of Care Survey 2025 (accessed Sept 2026)
- CareScout: Cost of Care Survey 2025, Median Cost Data Tables (accessed Sept 2026)
- CareScout: Cost of Care Survey 2025, Methodology (accessed Sept 2026)
- Genworth: CareScout releases 2025 Cost of Care Survey results (accessed Sept 2026)
- Genworth: Genworth and CareScout release Cost of Care Survey results (accessed Sept 2026)
- Genworth: Cost of Care Survey results for 2023 (accessed Sept 2026)
- Virginia Department of Social Services: Assisted Living Facility Disclosure Statement (accessed Sept 2026)
- U.S. GAO: Assisted Living Facilities, Information on Federal Spending and Medicaid (GAO-26-107884) (accessed Sept 2026)