Best Assisted Living Facilities in Knoxville, TN

How We Chose the Best Assisted Living in Knoxville

Knoxville isn’t the biggest city in Tennessee, but it does have a lot of assisted living communities to choose from. To help narrow down the list, we focused on a few important factors:

• Cost: The cost of assisted living in Knoxville is lower than the national average, making it a good choice for seniors on a tighter budget. However, since older adults have a wide range of budgets and needs, we found communities with varied pricing structures that can deliver the best value.
• Available care: Every community on this list offers assisted living and memory care at a minimum. We also found a few communities that offered three or more types of care to make them even more practical and accessible.
• Reviews: Reading through reviews helps us get a sense of what life is like for residents and family members in each community. While there are very few communities without bad reviews, we tried to focus on the communities that received positive feedback most of the time.
• Amenities: Amenities can be a double-edged sword; more amenities can often mean a higher quality of life, but they can also mean a higher cost of care. We focused our research on communities that had amenities that could benefit seniors and make each day a little brighter.
• Location: Each senior has unique preferences for the area they want to be in. For this reason, we chose communities in different areas of the city, with varied access to things like shopping, restaurants, cultural hotspots, and health care.
• Staff size: We highlighted assisted living communities that offer a high staff-to-resident ratio, often with a maximum of eight residents per caregiver.

How to Find the Right Assisted Living Community for You

We did a lot of research to determine our top five picks in Knoxville, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do your due diligence too. Here are a few things to consider when comparing communities:

• Identify your needs. Do you need help sorting your daily or weekly medications? Are you concerned about falling in the shower? Is your trusted caregiver no longer able to provide you with physical support when getting in and out of chairs? Answering questions like these will help you better understand your needs and what an assisted living must be able to do for you.
• Review your budget. Assisted living in Knoxville is relatively affordable, but prices do increase regularly. This is why you should take a look at your budget and understand exactly how much you can afford to pay for care each month (or each day for short-term stays). While analyzing your budget, remember Medicare doesn’t cover assisted living in most cases. Many seniors depend on Social Security benefits, retirement savings, and long-term care insurance to cover costs.
• Read reviews. We read a lot of reviews for you, but we don’t have the space to put all of that information in this guide. To ensure that a community is a good fit for you, make sure to read through the reviews yourself. You could catch a useful piece of information that we weren’t able to include.
• Visit communities. Always make sure to visit a community before you decide to move in. Seeing the property, staff, and residents in person can help you know if it’s the right place for you. Prepare some important questions to ask residents and staff in advance.
• Check licensing and certifications. While researching a community, check that it has up-to-date licensing and certifications to operate in Tennessee.
• Trust your gut. At the end of the day, the decision falls on you (and your family) to decide what’s best for your needs. If you feel overwhelmed by all of the good choices, use your best judgment. Don’t be afraid to trust your gut.

What Is Living in Knoxville Like for Seniors?

Knoxville has a lot to offer seniors, including warm weather, college sports, and amazing hilltop views. Below is a quick look at what life is like for older adults in Knoxville:

• Climate: Knoxville has a humid, subtropical climate, with long, hot summers and short, cold winters. The city gets a fair amount of precipitation each year, and some winters it even gets cold enough to snow. That said, Knoxville is warm throughout most of the year, which is ideal for seniors moving from colder cities.
• Health care: Knoxville has various quality hospitals and dozens of smaller clinics and specialized care for older residents.
• Cost of living: The cost of living in Knoxville is about 15 percent lower than the national average, making it a good choice for seniors who want to save on expenses during retirement.
• Walkability: While it’s not nearly as walkable if you live on the outskirts of the city, most neighborhoods near the downtown area are close together and very walkable.
• Activities: Knoxville has a lot of fun things to do for seniors, including museums, gardens, public parks, sporting events, and zoos.
• Safety: Unfortunately, Knoxville has a relatively high crime rate compared to cities of similar size across the nation. That said, there are many neighborhoods where it is perfectly safe to walk alone, even during the late hours of the evening.
• Tax structure: Tennessee does not have a state income tax, inheritance tax, or estate tax, making it a “tax haven” for many This could have a positive impact on your estate plan.

How Much Does Assisted Living Cost in Knoxville, Tennessee?

According to Genworth, the projected median cost of an assisted living community in Knoxville is $4,177 per month in 2024. That’s nearly $750 per month lower than the national median of

The combination of a relatively low cost of living and a low cost of assisted living makes Knoxville a good choice for retirees. As you can see from our list, however, the rates can vary substantially from one community to the next. The type of care you require can also affect how much you pay. Memory care, for example, tends to be much more expensive than assisted living care. Fortunately, you can shop around and find communities with starting prices well below average for the city, including many on this list.

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