Home care vs assisted living: what would each cost?
Reviewed September 24, 2026
Enter your quotes and household expenses to compare the monthly cost of home care and assisted living. Cost is one part of the decision—consider the care and support your family member needs, too.
Use your quotes or try your own estimates. Leave any cost you do not know as not known yet.
Your numbers stay in this browser tab. FEP and analytics do not receive them. You can print or copy the results when you want to share them.
YOUR COMPARISON
Monthly costs and what you need upfront
Your monthly costs, side by side
Based on your numbers. Both bars start at $0 and use the same scale. One-time charges and deposits are shown separately below.
At home
Assisted living
At home
Assisted living
Source: your quotes and estimates. FEP has not supplied prices for this comparison. Check each amount and what it covers with the agency, community, or other source.
We convert weekly costs to an average month using 52 weeks ÷ 12. Your actual bills may vary. The first-month amount includes the monthly cost, one-time charges, and refundable deposits you entered. Deposits are shown separately because you may get them back.
This worksheet does not work out funding, insurance, taxes, benefits, home-sale proceeds, or investment returns.
Use your summary to check the quotes
Print or copy your summary and take it to each agency or community. Ask about anything marked “not known yet” so you can compare the full costs.
What to ask before you decide
Ask home-care agencies about minimum hours per visit, weekly fees, taxes, overtime, and cancellation charges.
Ask assisted-living communities what the monthly quote covers, which care charges could change, and whether you can get the deposit back.
Include any housing costs you would still pay during or after a move.
For home care with a monthly quote, we use that quote as the monthly care cost, including regular agency fees, then add your household expenses. For hourly care, we multiply the hourly rate by the hours the agency would charge for each week, add weekly fees, then multiply by 52 ÷ 12. That gives an average monthly care cost. We then add the household expenses you entered. If the agency has a minimum number of hours per visit, we use that minimum whenever it is longer than the planned visit.
For assisted living, we add the monthly base rate and any extra costs you entered. Items marked “Included / no added charge” add $0. Anything marked “not known yet” stays on your list of costs to confirm.
Once all monthly costs are filled in, we can show the weekly home-care hours at which the two monthly totals would match. This is available only for a fixed hourly rate with no minimum hours per visit. It helps you compare costs, not decide how much care someone needs.
Here is an example: home care at $35/hour for 20 billed hours/week, plus $1,000/month in household expenses, comes to $4,033.33/month on average. Assisted living at $6,200/month with everything included would cost $2,166.67/month more.
