Just a rant: Here they cost about $10,000/month. In England the average is about £704 (about $800/week) - and probably better care. Nursing aides are paid more in England than here. NH profits and insurance companies bottom lines and shiny new buildings are more important than patients.
In NC most of the places out of pocket costs, that I have seen are under $4000.00 per month. It's quite a bit less expensive than Nursing Home costs. I found that if the assessment by the doctor or facility staff qualify the patient for Memory Care, which is considered Assisted Living in NC, the patient will stay there for the rest of their life, as long as they don't require skilled nursing care. The Memory Care takes care of those who are fully incontinent, wheelchair bound, hand feeding only, bed bound, non-verbal, etc. That is their permanent home. I have been impressed with all of the those that I toured. It might be worth checking into it.
However, I can understand why it cost so much. There are so many expenses that are required with a nursing home, including, staff (trained professionals), training, rent, utility, INSURANCE, equipment, food, etc. I considered opening an Assisted Living Home at one time, but, I don't know how you can make money at it. I suppose some do.
What do placement agents do?
The optomistic view: They are a knowledgeable referal service that finds and keeps a record of good care homes for elder people who would not have been able to find them otherwise.
The critical view: They are middle men, who intercept a client who needs eldercare, tell them about some carehomes in the area (easily searchable on google or the State Long Term care Agency Website) and then drive up the cost of that care by billing the carehome who accepts the elder client between $3,500-$10,000, sometimes without ever meeting the client, the carehome, or anyone directly involved in the care interaction. Some are just web based "lead generators", others are more local, small business operators, but all engage in the practice of billing outrageous amounts of money for a few hours of work at best.
Then the cost of labor, health insurance for the labor, workman's comp insurance. Cost of overhead such as utilities for such large buildings are very high. Property taxes. Sub-contractor cost for cleaning, cooking, rehab. Cost of equipment, beds, lifts, etc. Cost of exterior maintenance, lawn care, plowing costs.
Nursing home costs affect us as caregivers, so of course we're concerned. But there are other industries where "millions" are paid to CEOs, or in the investment industry to high performing individuals.
Taking care of older people who need assistance is probably going to be a growth industry for quite some time.
This question was asked several months ago; there were a lot of good answers. You might want to search here or google it (posts here are linked to and reflected in google hits) and see a fairly thorough discussion of the issues.