California ranks as the most financially punishing state in the country for older adults, according to a new study from CareScout that evaluated all 50 states across seven housing cost metrics, including housing burden, property taxes, insurance, utilities and assisted living expenses.
The report arrives as a record 12.5 million seniors nationwide now spend at least 30% of their income on housing — the federal threshold for cost burden. Since the pandemic, rent has climbed 36.2% nationally, property taxes have risen nearly 25%, and home insurance premiums have jumped 40.4%. Even seniors who have paid off their mortgages are not insulated: housing-related costs for that group have increased 35% since 2019.
California's position at the top of the ranking reflects some of the steepest senior housing pressures in the country. Nearly 63% of senior renters in the state are cost-burdened, the third-highest rate nationally. The state's home value-to-income ratio of 10.6 ranks second in the country, meaning most California seniors face a structural mismatch between what homes cost and what retirement income can realistically support.
Homeowners fare only marginally better. More than a third — 34.9% — of California senior homeowners are cost-burdened, the second-worst rate in the nation. The state's average annual real estate tax burden of $5,369 ranks seventh nationally, and monthly electric bills averaging $160.86 place California eighth. Assisted living costs average $84,000 per year, ranking 14th in the country.
The financial pressure extends beyond housing. Nationally, fewer than 15% of seniors can afford both housing costs and basic long-term care simultaneously.
For seniors already spending the majority of their income on rent or property-related expenses, a single medical emergency — an unexpected hospitalization, a fall, a stroke — can be enough to trigger a financial collapse that ends in housing loss.
That convergence of housing unaffordability and long-term care costs is precisely the gap CareScout was designed to address. The company offers ‘Care Plans’ that help families plan for aging through long-term care insurance and assisted living guidance, connecting older adults and their families with financial tools before a crisis forces their hand. In a state where assisted living alone averages $84,000 annually and senior renters are cost-burdened at nearly twice the national threshold for financial stress, that kind of advance planning is no longer optional for most families — it is the difference between maintaining dignity in aging and scrambling for options that no longer exist.
The ten states with the most financially vulnerable senior populations are California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Hawaii, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Washington D.C., Florida, New York and Colorado.
Copyright © 2026 California Business Journal. All Rights Reserved.
For California Business Journal Disclaimers, go to /terms-conditions/.
