Assisted Living Cost Calculator

Regional cost index, care-level multiplier, and room-type base cost are all multiplied together in the same formula -- multiplication doesn't care what order the terms appear in, so no single factor gets extra leverage just from being applied last. What actually makes regionIndex the biggest mover under this calculator's sensitivity check is its declared input range: 0.5x to 2.0x is a 4x span, wider than the care-level multiplier's 0.75x-1.55x (about 2x) or the room-type tiers' $4,200-$7,050 (about 1.7x). Moving from a 1.0 regional index to 1.6 (a high-cost coastal metro) still raises every dollar in the estimate by 60%, room and add-ons included -- that mechanical fact is correct -- it's just the range, not the formula position, that makes it dominate.

The calculator applies a 1.55x multiplier for extensive assistance versus a 1.0x multiplier for minimal assistance, so extensive care costs roughly 55% more than minimal assistance in the same room type and region, before any add-on services are counted. That gap reflects the higher staff-to-resident ratio extensive care requires -- near-continuous supervision and ADL support versus one or two scheduled assistance visits per day -- and it is the single largest care-level jump in the model.

Not really -- years-to-project and the inflation rate feed exclusively into the total projected cost and final-year monthly cost figures further down the results. This month's estimated cost, the number at the top, is computed from room type, care level, region, and add-on services alone and never changes no matter what projection horizon you set. Set years-to-project to 1 if you only want the current-year figures and want to ignore the multi-year projection entirely.

No, treat it as a starting point for budgeting rather than a facility quote. Only the one-bedroom base rate comes from a published Genworth Cost of Care Survey median; the other room-type tiers and the regional multiplier you set are this calculator's own estimates, so the result cannot capture a specific building's move-in fees, negotiated rate, or the way many facilities re-assess and re-bill your care level every few months. Use the output to compare care-level and region scenarios against each other, then confirm the real number with community-specific quotes before budgeting a final figure.