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Long-Term Care Affordability Sharply Worsening for Middle-Income Marylanders

New AARP Report Shows Surge in Costs Across Providers

Nancy Carr,

AARP Maryland

Nurse or home caregiver and senior woman holding hands at home

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Home care and assisted living costs have surged nearly 50 percent nationally since 2019, wiping out a decade of progress in long-term care affordability for middle-income older adults, AARP’s new report finds.

In 2025, the average annual income for adults 65+ in Maryland was $75,539, but the cost of long-term care varied based on the setting:

$173,375 - Nursing Home Private Room
$150,015 - Nursing Home Semi-Private Room
$84,990 - Assisted Living
$54,600 - Home Health Aide

“Home care and other long-term care services have quickly become increasingly unaffordable in recent years,” said AARP Maryland Advocacy Director Sara Westrick. “As costs rise faster than older adults’ household incomes, many families must deplete savings, rely on unpaid family caregivers, or go without needed care.”

National key findings from the report include:

In recent years, long-term care costs grew faster than incomes. From 2019 to 2024, the annual median cost of home care services increased by close to 50 percent, while over the same period the median household income for someone age 65 or older grew by less than half that amount, making long-term care further unaffordable.
Typical incomes are not enough to pay for long-term care. In 2024, the median household income for someone age 65 or older was about $60,000, while the annual median cost of home care services exceeded $50,000.
Savings are often insufficient to cover long-term care needs. The median household age 75 and older has about $50,000 in financial assets, enough to cover roughly one year of home care or only a few months of nursing home care.

Read the full report here. See complete state-level data here.