How Much Does Senior Care Cost in Washington, DC? (2026)

The cost of senior care in Washington, DC runs from $28,600 a year for adult day health care to $173,740 for a private nursing-home room, per CareScout's 2025 survey.1 If you're pricing care for a parent right now, those numbers can land hard. In DC, a year of assisted living ($77,934) costs far less than a year in a semi-private nursing-home room ($146,730), so matching the setting to what your parent actually needs is one of the biggest levers on the budget.1

In This Guide

• What Senior Care Costs in Washington, DC, Setting by Setting
• What In-Home Care Costs in DC, and How to Price Your Hours
• Why DC Senior Care Prices Differ From Site to Site
• Is Senior Care Cheaper in Maryland or Virginia?
• What About Memory Care in DC?
• Who Helps Pay for Senior Care in DC
• Frequently Asked Questions

What Senior Care Costs in Washington, DC, Setting by Setting

Every figure in this guide comes from one source, the CareScout 2025 Cost of Care Survey. CareScout is a wholly owned subsidiary of Genworth Financial, and it released its Washington, DC results on March 2, 2026, from rates gathered from long-term care providers between July and November 2025.1 Using a single dated survey matters, because it lets you compare settings fairly instead of mixing one site's assisted-living number with another site's nursing-home number from a different year.

One thing to know before you read the table: CareScout's DC release reports each DC median as an annual figure, so that's how we show them. If you want a rough monthly budget, divide the annual figure by 12, but treat the result as your own estimate rather than a published DC monthly rate.1

Read down the table and the pattern is plain: DC costs more than the national median in every setting shown, but not by the same margin. DC assisted living, at $77,934 a year, sits closest to the national median of $74,400. DC nursing homes sit furthest away, with a semi-private room at $146,730 a year against a national $114,975.1 CareScout ranks costs from highest to lowest by state, and DC comes in 11th highest for a private nursing-home room and 18th for assisted living.1

For a family, the gap between settings is often the bigger story than the gap with the national line. In DC, a year in a semi-private nursing-home room ($146,730) costs far more than a year of assisted living ($77,934).1 If your parent needs help with bathing, dressing, and medications but not round-the-clock nursing, ask honestly whether assisted living in DC could meet those needs before assuming a nursing home is the only option. The DC nursing homes guide covers what that higher level of care includes.

What In-Home Care Costs in DC, and How to Price Your Hours

CareScout prices in-home care from a non-medical caregiver in DC at $86,944 a year, based on 44 hours a week for 52 weeks. Nationally, CareScout's median non-medical caregiver rate is $35 an hour, or $80,080 a year on that same schedule. CareScout's DC release reports DC in-home care only as an annual figure, not as an hourly rate.1

That 44-hour week is a full-time schedule, so the number to hold onto is the hourly rate each DC home care agency quotes you. Check every quote against CareScout's national median of $35 an hour and against the DC annual figure of $86,944 for a full-time caregiver.1 A parent who needs a caregiver for four hours on weekday mornings will pay far less than that annual median. A parent who needs someone overnight, or around the clock, will pay far more, because the hours multiply fast. In CareScout's DC figures, even the full-time 44-hour schedule ($86,944 a year) already costs more than a year of DC assisted living ($77,934), so heavy daily needs at home can make a facility the less expensive choice, even when home is where everyone would rather be.1

Two more lines from the same survey round out the in-home and daytime picture. Adult day health care, five days a week, runs $28,600 a year in DC, against a national $24,700. It's the lowest-cost setting on the list, and it can give a working family caregiver real breathing room during the day. A private duty nurse at home comes to $3,900 a year in CareScout's DC figures, but that number assumes just one hour of nursing a week, so it isn't comparable with the caregiver line.1 Our national guide to adult day care costs and who pays goes further on the daytime option.

A word on the in-home category itself, because it changed. Beginning with the 2025 survey, CareScout merged its former separate homemaker and home health aide categories into a single "non-medical caregiver" category, so 2024 and 2025 in-home figures aren't a like-for-like series.2 If you're comparing today's DC figure with an older page that shows two in-home rates, the two aren't measuring the same thing.

Why DC Senior Care Prices Differ From Site to Site

If you've already searched, you've probably seen several different prices for the same kind of care in DC, with no explanation. It's confusing, and it can make budgeting feel impossible. A few concrete things explain most of the gap.

The survey year. CareScout's own DC figures moved sharply from 2024 to 2025. From CareScout's 2024 survey to its 2025 survey, DC assisted living changed by -33%, a DC semi-private nursing-home room by +50%, and a DC private nursing-home room by -13%, while DC in-home care didn't change at all. CareScout itself describes Washington, DC's costs as mixed year over year.1 A page still quoting the 2024 survey can land far from the 2025 figure, in either direction. Swings that large are also a reason not to read one year's DC number as a trend.

The region behind the number. CareScout collects rates at the Metropolitan Statistical Area level, and its 2025 regions list names one region for DC, "Washington, Arlington, Alexandria." CareScout says its regions follow the federal government's metro-area definitions and can often include counties from other nearby states.1 So a CareScout "DC" figure comes from a survey region named for Arlington and Alexandria as well as Washington, DC, which is worth remembering when you compare it with a quote from a single facility inside the District.

What's being priced. CareScout's assisted-living figure is based on 12 months of care in a private, one-bedroom unit, its nursing-home figures on 365 days of care, and its in-home figure on 44 hours a week.1 A site quoting a shared room, a studio, a daily rate, or a part-time schedule is answering a different question.

Medians, not prices. Every CareScout figure is an industry-survey median, not a government figure.2 A median is the midpoint of the rates surveyed, not a price list, and the quote you get will depend on the building, the room, and how much help your parent needs.

When you run into a number that doesn't match this guide, check which survey it comes from, which year, and which kind of room or schedule it describes. That usually explains it.

Is Senior Care Cheaper in Maryland or Virginia?

If a parent's other children live in Montgomery County or Northern Virginia, it's natural to look across the line. The honest answer is that it depends on the setting. Comparing CareScout's 2025 figures for all three, DC is not the most expensive place for every kind of care.1,2,3

Assisted living is where the comparison surprises people: at $77,934 a year, DC's median sits below both Maryland's $86,070 and Virginia's $83,340.1,2,3 In-home care runs the other way, with DC's $86,944 above the $80,080 median in both neighboring states. For nursing homes, Maryland's semi-private room costs more than DC's ($155,125 against $146,730), while Virginia's statewide medians for both room types run well below DC's.2,3

Keep two cautions in mind. First, CareScout's Maryland and Virginia figures are statewide medians, not prices for any one county or facility.2,3 Second, moving a parent across the line changes more than the bill: Medicaid, licensing, and oversight rules are set by each jurisdiction. Our Maryland cost of senior care guide and Virginia cost of senior care guide break down each state on its own terms.

What About Memory Care in DC?

This is the question we can't answer with a number, and we'd rather tell you that than guess. CareScout's DC release covers adult day health care, assisted living, non-medical in-home care, a private duty nurse, and the two nursing-home room types, with no separate memory-care line.1 Figures you may find elsewhere for DC memory care come from other sources we haven't been able to verify, so we don't repeat them here.

What you can do is price memory care directly. Ask each community for its base rate and its care-level charges in writing, and compare them with DC's assisted-living and nursing-home medians above as a frame. Our memory care in DC guide covers how memory care works in the District and what to ask.

Who Helps Pay for Senior Care in DC

Seeing $146,730 a year for a semi-private nursing-home room in DC can make any family's stomach drop.1 Here is how Medicare, DC Medicaid, and the District's SSI supplement fit in, with links to the guides that go deeper.

Medicare pays for skilled care, not long-term custodial care. Medicare does not pay for long-term custodial care, meaning ongoing help with activities of daily living when that is the only care needed.4 Medicare does cover a short skilled nursing facility stay, generally after a qualifying inpatient hospital stay of at least three days: up to 100 days per benefit period, with a $217 daily coinsurance for days 21 through 100 in 2026, and nothing after day 100. Missing the three-day stay isn't always the end of the road, because a Medicare Advantage plan may waive it, and so may a doctor's Accountable Care Organization approved for a Skilled Nursing Facility 3-Day Rule Waiver.4

DC Medicaid pays for long-term care for people who qualify. The DC Department of Health Care Finance runs DC Medicaid, which covers nursing facility care and home and community-based waiver care. For 2026, DC Medicaid's countable asset limit for long-term care is $4,000 for one person, and DC Medicaid's special income standard for long-term care is $2,982.00 a month. Neither limit applies to a person already receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI), because DC Medicaid treats SSI recipients as categorically eligible. A DC resident whose income is above $2,982.00 a month but who has high medical expenses may still qualify through DC Medicaid's Medically Needy spend-down pathway.5 The DC Medicaid long-term care guide walks through who qualifies and how.

The EPD Waiver can help with assisted living, but not rent. DC Medicaid's Elderly and Persons with Disabilities (EPD) Waiver can pay for assisted living services for people who meet a nursing home level of care and its financial rules, but Medicaid reimbursement doesn't cover room and board.6 That means the housing share of an assisted-living bill still has to come from somewhere. See how the EPD Waiver works and how to pay for assisted living in DC.

A small monthly supplement exists for some residents. The DC Optional State Supplemental Payment (OSSP) adds to SSI for eligible people living in a DC-licensed adult foster care home, which includes assisted living facilities. For 2026, the combined SSI-plus-DC OSSP payment for an individual is $1,675 a month in a home with 50 or fewer beds and $1,785 in a home with more than 50 beds.6 Set against DC assisted living at $77,934 a year, the DC OSSP supplement won't cover the bill on its own, but for a parent on SSI it can matter.1

Learn More

Find personalized help building a senior-care budget for your family in Washington, DC at brevy.com.

The information on Brevy.com is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal, financial, or medical advice. Rules vary by state and program and change frequently. Always verify with the relevant agency or a qualified professional. Brevy is not a law firm, financial advisor, or healthcare provider.