Can someone tell me the number of nursing homes there are in the US? I
would like the number for the most recent year possible, but anything
after 2000 will be acceptable.

I've gathered some recent figures for you.

From a CDC publication called "Health, United States, 2004":

"Nursing homes...
                 1995      2000      2002   
United States  16,389    16,886    16,491"

Nursing homes, beds, occupancy, and residents, according to geographic
division and State: United States, 1995?2002
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus04trend.pdf#113

From Wikipedia's entry on "Nursing homes":

"In April, 2005 there were a total of 16,094 nursing homes in the
United States, down from 16,516 in December, 2002."

Wikipedia: Nursing Homes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nursing_homes

My Google search strategy:

Google Web Search: "nursing home statistics"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22nursing+home+statistics%22

Google Web Search: "nursing homes" "united states" "16000..18000"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22nursing+homes%22+%22united+states%22+%2216000..18000%22

I hope this is helpful! If anything is unclear or incomplete, or if a
link doesn't work for you, please request clarification; I'll be glad
to offer further assistance before you rate my answer.

Best regards,
pinkfreud

Thanks for the great information!