Cost of Senior Care in Texas (2026)

The cost of senior care in Texas runs below the national line in every measured setting. Assisted living in Texas costs a median of about $5,600 a month, and a semi-private nursing-home room about $5,627 a month, according to the CareScout 2025 Cost of Care Survey (released March 2026).1 Which setting a family chooses, and how heavy the care needs grow, can still swing the yearly bill by tens of thousands of dollars.

This guide lays out what each senior-care setting in Texas costs side by side, why ranking sites disagree on the number, what pushes the price up or down, and how families actually pay, from private funds to Medicaid for those who qualify.

In This Guide

• Key Takeaways
• What Senior Care Costs in Texas by Setting
• Why Sites Disagree on the Cost
• What Drives the Cost of Senior Care in Texas
• How Families Pay for Senior Care
• How to Plan and Budget for Senior Care
• Frequently Asked Questions

What Senior Care Costs in Texas by Setting

The figures below come from the CareScout (formerly Genworth) 2025 Cost of Care Survey, released in March 2026. They are statewide medians, not government rates and not maximums, so the cost at any one provider can land higher or lower depending on metro area, room type, and how much care a person needs.1

Read across the settings and Texas's pattern is consistent: care here costs less than the national median in every measured category. A semi-private nursing-home room costs a median of about $185 a day in Texas, well under the national figure of about $315 a day.1 Assisted living costs about $5,600 a month against a national median of about $6,200.1 That doesn't make any of it cheap, but it does mean a Texas family's dollar stretches further than the national headlines suggest.

The home-care figure is an hourly rate, so the monthly bill depends entirely on the schedule. CareScout reports non-medical home care in Texas at a median of about $68,640 a year, up 3% from 2024.1 On the survey's standard basis of 44 hours a week for 52 weeks, that works out to roughly $30 an hour, or about $5,720 a month for that full schedule. Many families use a lighter schedule, so the monthly bill scales down with the hours. Skilled home health care, the medical kind, is often covered by Medicare or Medicaid when it is medically necessary, so families typically pay out of pocket only for the non-medical hours.1

One detail matters if you are comparing this year's home-care number to last year's: beginning with the 2025 survey, CareScout reports a single "non-medical caregiver" category instead of the separate "homemaker" and "home health aide" figures it published before.1 A family that saw two home-care lines a year ago is now looking at one, so the figures are not directly comparable.

Memory care is the one common setting CareScout does not measure on its own. It typically costs more than standard assisted living because of the specialized dementia staffing and secured units it requires, but there is no verified statewide memory-care median from the recognized cost authority.1 A practical way to estimate it is to start from the assisted-living median of about $5,600 a month and add a premium of several hundred to a couple thousand dollars, then confirm the exact figure with the specific community.1 For the payment side, see How to Pay for Memory Care.

Why Sites Disagree on the Cost

If you have searched "cost of senior care in Texas," you have probably seen three different numbers and no explanation. That is because there is no single official price, and the major sites each run their own survey. CareScout (formerly Genworth) publishes the long-running Cost of Care Survey that most of the industry treats as the benchmark, and its 2025 figures are the ones used throughout this guide. Other publishers report their own proprietary data gathered from their own provider networks, which is why one site's "national median assisted living" can differ by several hundred dollars a month from CareScout's national figure of about $6,200, even when both are labeled current.1

Two more things move the number. First, the survey year: a figure labeled "2026" may be drawn from data collected a year earlier, so always check what survey and what year a number comes from. Second, the methodology change noted above, where CareScout folded homemaker and home health aide into one "non-medical caregiver" line in 2025. The takeaway is to compare like with like: use one source, note its year, and treat any single dollar figure as a median, not a guaranteed price.

What Drives the Cost of Senior Care in Texas

The single biggest driver of cost is the level of care a person needs. A nursing home provides 24-hour licensed nursing care, with nurses and aides on every shift plus the building, equipment, and oversight that skilled care requires, so it sits at the top of the range at about $185 a day for a semi-private room and $250 a day for a private one.1 Assisted living is built for people who need help with daily tasks but not constant skilled nursing, so it carries a lighter staffing load and costs about $5,600 a month.1 Memory care sits in between, adding a premium of several hundred to a couple thousand dollars a month over standard assisted living for the specialized staffing and secured environment that dementia care requires.1

Where in Texas a family looks also matters. CareScout publishes a single statewide median for each setting rather than a verified city-by-city breakdown, but costs generally run higher in and around large metro areas such as Houston, Dallas, and Austin and lower in smaller markets, so the cost at a given community can sit above or below the statewide figure.1 A family weighing a move across metro lines is also weighing a real difference in the monthly bill.

Within any single setting, the advertised rate is rarely the whole bill. Most facilities quote a base rate for room and routine services, then add charges as care needs grow: help with more activities of daily living, medication management, memory care, or a higher staffing tier.1 A resident who enters needing little help and later needs much more can see the monthly cost climb well past the opening figure. When you compare quotes, ask what the base rate includes and what triggers an add-on, because two facilities with similar headline prices can bill very differently once care needs rise.

How Families Pay for Senior Care

Almost no one pays for years of senior care out of a single source. Most families start with private funds and shift to other payers as the bills mount. Here is how the main options work in Texas.

Private pay is savings, income, the proceeds of a home sale, and long-term care insurance if a person bought it. It is the most flexible option, since it covers any setting, but it is also the one that runs out, and at about $67,525 a year for a semi-private nursing-home room it can run out faster than families expect.1 Long-term care insurance, where it exists, can offset a share of the cost, though policies vary widely in what they pay and for how long.

Texas Medicaid pays for long-term care, including nursing-facility care and home- and community-based services, for people who meet both a level-of-care test and the financial rules.3 Texas applies a long-term-care Medicaid income limit of $2,982 a month for a single applicant in 2026, which is 300% of the SSI federal benefit rate. An applicant whose income sits above that cap is not automatically disqualified: a Qualified Income Trust, also called a Miller Trust, lets the excess income flow through the trust so the person can still qualify.3 The countable-asset limit is $2,000 for a single applicant. When one spouse needs care, federal spousal-impoverishment rules let the at-home spouse keep a community spouse resource allowance, up to a 2026 maximum of $162,660, so the couple is not held to the single-person asset figure.3

A nursing-facility resident on Texas Medicaid applies most of their monthly income toward the cost of care after allowable deductions, keeping a $75-a-month personal needs allowance.3 Texas delivers most of its long-term-care Medicaid through STAR+PLUS, the state's managed-care program for older adults and people with disabilities, which coordinates both nursing-facility care and home- and community-based services. Nursing-facility Medicaid is an entitlement with no waitlist for those who qualify, while the home- and community-based side has an interest list (waitlist).2 Texas also enforces a 60-month look-back on assets transferred for less than fair value, which can trigger a penalty period.3

One gap trips up many families: Medicaid does not pay the room-and-board cost of assisted living. Texas Medicaid can cover the care services in a contracted assisted-living facility through the STAR+PLUS HCBS program, but the resident pays the room-and-board charge, which is set at the SSI federal benefit rate minus an $85 personal needs allowance.2 A family choosing assisted living should plan to cover room and board privately, even where a waiver helps pay for the care services themselves.

A note on Medicare, because the assumption is common: Medicare covers only short-term skilled rehabilitation after a hospital stay, not the long-term custodial care, the ongoing help with daily living, that most families are budgeting for. That long-term care is what private pay and Medicaid cover.

How to Plan and Budget for Senior Care

Start by matching the setting to the actual need, not the other way around. A candid assessment of how much help a person truly needs is worth more than a default assumption. Many people who need help with daily tasks but not skilled nursing are well served by assisted living at about $5,600 a month or a few hours a day of in-home care, while someone needing continuous supervision or skilled nursing may find a nursing home is the only setting that fits.1

Then build a realistic timeline. Estimate the monthly cost of the right setting, list the resources available to pay for it, and work out how long private funds will last before Medicaid would come into play. If Medicaid is likely to be part of the plan, the look-back and estate-recovery rules reward starting early and getting advice, because last-minute moves to qualify often trigger penalties. Two Brevy guides go deeper here: Medicaid Planning Strategies walks through how to position assets and income within the rules, and Medicaid Personal Needs Allowance, Explained covers the small monthly amount a resident keeps.

Finally, budget for the add-ons, not just the base rate. Care needs tend to rise over time, so the figure you start with is rarely the figure you finish with. A plan that assumes some increase is more likely to hold up than one built on today's lowest quote.

Learn More

Find personalized help building a realistic senior-care budget for Texas 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.