Overall
- Anchorage
- 105.4
Diff -7.2 RPP
Anchorage vs Prescott Valley-Prescott
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Prescott Valley-Prescott is 6.8% less expensive than Anchorage.
6.8% less expensive
Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ is 6.8% less expensive than Anchorage, AK on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.3 vs 105.4). A $100,000 salary in Anchorage buys about the same as $93,203 in Prescott Valley-Prescott; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 105.4 (Anchorage) vs 98.3 (Prescott Valley-Prescott)
- $100k in Anchorage ≈ $93,203 purchasing power in Prescott Valley-Prescott
- Services drives the gap (-20.3 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair AK:AZ 105.4→98.3
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SERVICES-LED · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE AK × AZ
- SERVICES-LED Services-led gap
- BENCH-CROSS Benchmark cross
- PP-SHIFT PP shift
Instrument codes from this pair's BEA Regional Price Parities (overall · goods · services · rents · national benchmark 100 · purchasing-power conversion), not a ranking or recommendation.
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ is 6.8% less expensive than Anchorage, AK, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 7.2-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Anchorage is above 100 while Prescott Valley-Prescott is below it. That makes the move a change of price regime, not merely a rank swap.
Services leads the difference, with Prescott Valley-Prescott 20.3 points lower than Anchorage. Goods, services, and rents all point in the same broad direction, making the headline comparison more transferable across household types.
Comparable population context is incomplete for this pair, so no market-scale explanation is inferred from the price indexes.
For a service-heavy household, test childcare, health, and other locally supplied costs before relying on rent alone. The BEA ratio converts $100,000 in Anchorage to $93,203 in Prescott Valley-Prescott, but it is not a personal spending weight.
How the Price Gap Changed
Anchorage and Prescott Valley-Prescott share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap widened, moving from 3.5 to 7.2 RPP points. Anchorage remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 20.7 points between the first and latest shared releases (0.4 to 20.3 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Anchorage RPP | Prescott Valley-Prescott RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 106.5 | 103.0 | 3.5 points Anchorage higher |
| 2012 | 107.2 | 96.5 | 10.6 points Anchorage higher |
| 2016 | 108.1 | 98.6 | 9.5 points Anchorage higher |
| 2020 | 103.2 | 93.2 | 10.0 points Anchorage higher |
| 2024 | 105.4 | 98.3 | 7.2 points Anchorage higher |
Annual BEA Regional Price Parity releases; a higher index means a higher price level relative to the national average of 100. Selected years shown from the full shared series.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Anchorage
- 107.3
Diff -11.1 RPP
Services
- Anchorage
- 111.8
Diff -20.3 RPP
Rents
- Anchorage
- 109.9
Diff -11.1 RPP
| Category | Anchorage | Prescott Valley-Prescott | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 105.4 | 98.3 | -7.2 |
| Goods | 107.3 | 96.2 | -11.1 |
| Services | 111.8 | 91.5 | -20.3 |
| Rents | 109.9 | 98.8 | -11.1 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Anchorage 105.4
Prescott Valley-Prescott 98.3
Goods
Anchorage 107.3
Prescott Valley-Prescott 96.2
Services
Anchorage 111.8
Prescott Valley-Prescott 91.5
Rents
Anchorage 109.9
Prescott Valley-Prescott 98.8
Vertical line = national average (100)
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Anchorage would need to be in Prescott Valley-Prescott for the same purchasing power:
| In Anchorage | In Prescott Valley-Prescott | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $46,602 | $-3,398 |
| $75,000 | $69,903 | $-5,097 |
| $100,000 | $93,203 | $-6,797 |
| $150,000 | $139,805 | $-10,195 |
$ in Anchorage = in Prescott Valley-Prescott
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (105.4 → 98.3), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Anchorage
105.4
Cost Index
Prescott Valley-Prescott
98.3
Cost Index
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Prescott Valley-Prescott more expensive than Anchorage?
Prescott Valley-Prescott is 6.8% less expensive than Anchorage. The overall cost index is 98.3 vs 105.4 (national average = 100).
What salary in Prescott Valley-Prescott equals $100K in Anchorage?
A $100,000 salary in Anchorage has the same purchasing power as $93,203 in Prescott Valley-Prescott. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Anchorage and Prescott Valley-Prescott?
Rents in Anchorage are indexed at 109.9 while Prescott Valley-Prescott is at 98.8 (national average = 100). Anchorage has higher rents.
Data sources
- BEA Regional Price Parities (RPP), the cost-of-living indices shown on this page
- U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS), gross-rent observations behind the rents component
- BLS Consumer Price Index (CPI), goods and services price relatives
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), labor-driven services component
- HUD Fair Market Rents (FMR), 40th-percentile rent cross-reference
Every figure on PlainCost is rendered directly from BEA Regional Price Parity source data, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, our changelog, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026-08-11. Rankings measure the published cost-of-living index only; we don't recommend where to live or rate any metro's quality of life.