Cost of Senior Care in Tennessee (2026): Home Care, Assisted Living & Nursing Homes

ElderHearth offers general information, not financial advice. The prices below are median survey figures, not quotes. Costs vary by city, provider, and level of care, and they rise most years, so get current local quotes before you plan around any number here.

Before a family can plan how a parent will be cared for, they need a realistic number. The good news is that Tennessee sits close to the middle nationally, not at the expensive end. The cost of senior care in Tennessee ranges from roughly $30 an hour for in-home help to more than $9,000 a month for a nursing home, and where your parent lands depends on how much care they need and where they receive it.

What does senior care cost in Tennessee?

The figures below are the Tennessee medians from the 2024 Genworth and CareScout Cost of Care Survey, the most recent state data published, gathered from providers across the state. Treat them as a starting point, not a quote: a newer 2025 survey has since been released and costs generally rise a few percent a year, so your local numbers may run higher.

Genworth described Tennessee's long-term care costs as on par with national costs. In that 2024 survey, home care costs in Tennessee actually dipped about 3% from the prior year, while assisted living rose about 9% and nursing homes rose 5 to 6%, a reminder that the in-home path has been the most stable.

How much does in-home care cost in Tennessee?

The cost of in-home care in Tennessee runs about $30 to $31 an hour for non-medical help, which the survey annualizes to roughly $68,640 for a homemaker and $70,928 for a home health aide at 44 hours a week. Most families do not need full-time paid help, though. If your parent needs 20 hours of paid support a week, in-home care runs closer to $2,500 a month at that rate, well under the cost of a facility. That is what makes home care the most affordable option for a parent who does not yet need round-the-clock supervision. For how the care itself is arranged, see our guide to in-home care for seniors.

How much does assisted living cost in Tennessee?

The average cost of assisted living in Tennessee is about $5,358 a month, or $64,290 a year, in the 2024 survey. That figure bundles housing, meals, and personal care in one bill, which is part of why it can look comparable to in-home care on paper: it includes the room and board your parent would otherwise pay for at home. Assisted living was also the fastest-rising category in Tennessee, up about 9% in a year, so treat the median as a floor and expect a range depending on the community and floor plan.

How much does a nursing home cost in Tennessee?

A nursing home is the most expensive option by a wide margin. The cost of a nursing home in Tennessee is the steepest of any care type: in the 2024 survey the median is about $9,125 a month for a semi-private room ($109,500 a year) and about $9,855 a month for a private room ($118,260 a year). Because these costs are so high and so few families can pay them out of pocket for long, nursing home care is where Medicaid, through TennCare, most often becomes the way families pay.

Adult day care and other options

Adult day health care is the lowest-cost paid option in Tennessee, at about $1,842 a month ($22,100 a year) in the 2024 survey. It provides supervised daytime care, meals, and activities while a family caregiver works, and it pairs well with unpaid family care at night and on weekends. For many families, a mix of adult day care and part-time in-home help covers the need at a fraction of a facility's cost.

Is it cheaper to stay home or move to assisted living?

Families often ask whether it is cheaper to stay home or go to assisted living. For most parents who do not need constant supervision, staying home is cheaper, and the survey figures show why. Assisted living in Tennessee runs about $5,358 a month. At roughly $30 an hour for in-home help, that same $5,358 buys about 179 hours of care a month, or around 41 hours a week. So the rough break-even is about 40 hours of paid help a week: below that, aging in place usually costs less; above it, a facility starts to compete on price.

Two honest caveats sit on top of that math. First, assisted living includes room and board, while a parent at home still pays their own housing and food, so the comparison is not perfectly apples to apples. Second, the break-even shifts once a parent needs overnight supervision, since paying for 24-hour in-home care quickly passes the cost of a facility. Our fuller comparison of aging in place versus assisted living walks through the non-financial trade-offs too.

How families in Tennessee pay for it

Very few families pay these amounts out of pocket for long. The main ways they cover the cost of senior care in Tennessee are:

• TennCare (Medicaid). For those who qualify financially, TennCare CHOICES pays for in-home care or a nursing home, and it can even pay a family member to provide the care. See TennCare CHOICES eligibility and getting paid to care for a parent in Tennessee.
• Lowering fixed costs at home. Programs like property tax relief for seniors in Tennessee and home modification grants reduce the cost of staying put.
• Long-term care insurance, VA benefits, and personal savings cover the rest for many families. Our guide to how to pay for an aging parent's care lays out the full picture.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does in-home care cost per hour in Tennessee? In-home, non-medical care in Tennessee runs about $30 to $31 an hour, based on the 2024 Genworth and CareScout Cost of Care Survey. That works out to roughly $68,640 a year for a homemaker at 44 hours a week, but most families pay far less because they use part-time help rather than full-time care.

What is the average cost of assisted living in Tennessee? The average cost of assisted living in Tennessee is about $5,358 a month, or $64,290 a year, in the 2024 survey, which bundles housing, meals, and personal care. It was the fastest-rising care type in the state, so expect current quotes to run higher and to vary by community.

How much does a nursing home cost in Tennessee? About $9,125 a month for a semi-private room and $9,855 a month for a private room in the 2024 survey. Because few families can pay that out of pocket for long, nursing home care is most often covered by TennCare for those who qualify.

Is it cheaper to keep a parent at home or move them to assisted living? For a parent who needs less than about 40 hours of paid help a week, staying home is usually cheaper, because in-home care at roughly $30 an hour costs less than the $5,358 monthly median for assisted living. Once a parent needs overnight or around-the-clock care, a facility often costs less.

Where to start

Start by estimating how many hours of paid help your parent actually needs each week, then compare that to the numbers above rather than to a worst-case figure. Most families are planning for part-time in-home care, not a nursing home, and the cost of aging in place in Tennessee is far more manageable at that scale. Once you have a rough number, look at how to cover it: if your parent's income and assets are limited, start with TennCare CHOICES eligibility, and either way, lowering fixed costs through property tax relief helps keep a parent at home affordably.

This guide is part of our Tennessee senior care resources, which cover every program that helps a parent age in place in the state.

If you would like someone to read what you are dealing with, you are welcome to write to us.

Sources

• Genworth and CareScout, 2024 Cost of Care Survey, Tennessee long-term care costs (published March 4, 2025; data collected July to December 2024).
• CareScout, Cost of Care.