Local decisionmakers in the rural Ozarks will find this budget analysis useful in evaluating potential need for nursing homes and projecting capital and operating costs. The procedure developed for estimating the number of potential nursing home residents by zip code areas within a county is based on national utilization rates of nursing homes. Average capital and operating cost budgets are calculated from accounting reports and applications for construction funds of nursing homes in Missouri and northeast Oklahoma. As of October 1978, the average capital cost per nursing home bed was $18,402; the average annual operating cost per bed was $6,467.