Where the dollar figures on this site come from, how often they get rechecked, and what to do if one looks wrong.
The four calculators on this site run on a cost model built by this site, not a single copied national average. The model starts from published benchmarks, most notably the CareScout Cost of Care Survey (published by Genworth Financial), then applies a regional index so a studio in a high-cost state and the same studio in a low-cost state don't get the same number. Room type and the level of care needed adjust the estimate from there.
The 2026 Senior Living Cost Reference page lines up every care level side by side and offers the underlying figures as a downloadable CSV. Each row notes whether a number comes from this site's own cost model or from an external benchmark survey, along with the date that benchmark was published. We built it this way so a reader (or another site) can see exactly which numbers are ours and which come from an outside source, rather than one blended figure with no paper trail.
The underlying cost model is checked on a quarterly cycle against newly published benchmark data. The dataset itself, and the state-by-state assisted living pages built from it, get a full pass once a year, typically in the summer when the major industry cost-of-care surveys publish their annual update. Between those passes, individual figures can be corrected sooner if a reader flags something that looks off.
If a figure looks wrong for your state, or a page cites an outdated benchmark, use the contact page and describe what you're seeing and where. We look at every correction request; figures that turn out to be stale get updated, and we note the change if it affects a number readers may have already relied on.
Cost research and articles are written by Naomi Foster, a health cost writer. She is not a nurse, a licensed clinician, or a social worker, and nothing she writes is meant to substitute for advice from one. SeniorLivingCostGuide is published by Chris Terry.
This site does not call individual communities to verify pricing, does not offer placement or referral services, and does not accept payment to rank one provider above another in its content. The figures here are planning estimates built from public data, meant to give a reader a realistic number before they start making calls of their own.