The rising cost of certain goods and services is still driving up the average monthly rate for residents of assisted living and other senior housing communities. But the pace of such increases slowed last year.
That’s according to the latest Cost of Care Survey from Genworth Financial (NYSE: GNW), which showed that between 2022 and 2023, assisted living care costs rose nearly 1.4%, hitting a national median of $64,200 or $5,350, per month.
While costs rose again for another consecutive year, the increase was not as drastic as prior years, especially in assisted living communities, “which only increased 1.4% from 2022 to 2023, but a total of 18.9% from 2021 to 2023,” said Jamala Arland, Genworth president and CEO.
“This is likely due to inflation and housing market trends stabilizing post-pandemic,” Arland said in a press release about this year’s report. “With 10,000 Baby Boomers turning 65 every day until 2036, and seven out of ten of them likely to need long-term care services and support at some point, there is increased demand for skilled workers in the long-term care space.”
The survey was conducted by reaching out to 176,807 people representing long-term providers, with 11,867 completed surveys between September and December, 2023.
Nursing homes saw increases in both private and semi-private rooms by 4.92% and 4.4% respectively, with national median costs being $116,800 and $104,025 per year. Adult day care costs also rose last year, with a median cost of $95 per day in 2023, indicating a 5.56% increase.
No matter their care type, nearly all of the survey’s respondents indicated an interest in person-centered care. The biggest barriers to providing it were staff training and the cost of those services, according to Genworth.
The survey indicates there has been an increase in home care services, including home health aides and the “hands off” services such as cooking and cleaning, to $33 and $30 respectively. However, the survey notes there is “significant variance across regions” and pricing depends on severity.
The factors for the increases are largely split, with inflation being the biggest factor for assisted living and adult day care while workforce shortages have been impacting home care services.
“We saw increases between 1% and 10% across facility types for this year’s survey,” Arland said in the release. “While this continues the upward trend we’ve seen over the past several surveys, we are actively digging deeper into the data to analyze trends and plan to share those findings in the coming months.”
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