CLEVELAND, Ohio – If you were lucky enough to spend time with family over the holidays you may have found yourself looking a little more closely at how your older relatives are faring.
If you saw signs that an older loved one is slowing down, you may have also found yourself wondering if it is still safe for them to live alone, or if they would benefit from a little help with those day-to-day tasks and the built-in companionship of an assisted-living facility.
Ohio is on pace to become one of a handful of states -- mostly in the Midwest and Northeast – with more residents aged 60, or older, than people younger than 20.
Assisted living facilities traditionally see an uptick in occupancy rates every January, but before you talk to your senior family members about making the move, you may want to consider a new study by seniorly.com, which found that Ohio ranks 14th in the nation as one of the most expensive states for assisted living.
Seniors in Ohio can expect to pay an average of $4,432 per month at the state’s 774 assisted living facilities.
Nationally, the average monthly rent at assisted living communities is $4,057 per month. New Jersey had the most expensive assisted living communities in the country with an average monthly tab of $5,893, while Georgia had the least expensive communities with monthly rent coming in around $3,000 per month.
According to the study, an Ohio resident needs to save 7.5 percent of their income annually for 12.5 years – based on the state’s median income of $56,602 – to afford just one year of assisted living.
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