Denver-Aurora-Centennial vs Prescott Valley-Prescott

Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Prescott Valley-Prescott is 7.1% less expensive than Denver-Aurora-Centennial.

7.1% less expensive

Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ is 7.1% less expensive than Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.3 vs 105.8). A $100,000 salary in Denver-Aurora-Centennial buys about the same as $92,884 in Prescott Valley-Prescott; the largest component gap is rents.

  • Overall RPP 105.8 (Denver-Aurora-Centennial) vs 98.3 (Prescott Valley-Prescott)
  • $100k in Denver-Aurora-Centennial ≈ $92,884 purchasing power in Prescott Valley-Prescott
  • Rents drives the gap (-48.1 RPP points)

RPP parity plate

Pair CO:AZ 105.8→98.3

TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT

  • TIER-NEAR Near tier
  • CROSS-STATE CO × AZ
  • SPLIT-BUDGET Split budget
  • 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.

Category Breakdown

Visual Comparison

Overall
Denver-Aurora-Centennial
105.8
Prescott Valley-Prescott
98.3
Goods
Denver-Aurora-Centennial
101.0
Prescott Valley-Prescott
96.2
Services
Denver-Aurora-Centennial
87.9
Prescott Valley-Prescott
91.5
Rents
Denver-Aurora-Centennial
146.9
Prescott Valley-Prescott
98.8

Vertical line = national average (100)

What This Comparison Actually Tells You

Rents creates the largest separation: Prescott Valley-Prescott is 48.1 points lower. But services move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.

Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ is 7.1% less expensive than Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 7.5-point overall gap.

This route crosses the national benchmark: Denver-Aurora-Centennial is above 100 while Prescott Valley-Prescott is below it. That makes the move a change of price regime, not merely a rank swap.

Comparable population context is incomplete for this pair, so no market-scale explanation is inferred from the price indexes.

For a housing-sensitive move, validate the rent gap first: HUD Fair Market Rent and the actual unit size can overturn what the blended index implies. On the BEA ratio alone, $100,000 in Denver-Aurora-Centennial corresponds to $92,884 in Prescott Valley-Prescott.

Denver-Aurora-Centennial
105.8
Cost Index
Prescott Valley-Prescott
98.3
Cost Index

Salary Equivalents

What a salary in Denver-Aurora-Centennial would need to be in Prescott Valley-Prescott for the same purchasing power:

In Denver-Aurora-Centennial In Prescott Valley-Prescott Difference
$50,000 $46,442 $-3,558
$75,000 $69,663 $-5,337
$100,000 $92,884 $-7,116
$150,000 $139,327 $-10,673
$ in Denver-Aurora-Centennial = in Prescott Valley-Prescott

Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (105.8 → 98.3), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Prescott Valley-Prescott more expensive than Denver-Aurora-Centennial?

Prescott Valley-Prescott is 7.1% less expensive than Denver-Aurora-Centennial. The overall cost index is 98.3 vs 105.8 (national average = 100).

What salary in Prescott Valley-Prescott equals $100K in Denver-Aurora-Centennial?

A $100,000 salary in Denver-Aurora-Centennial has the same purchasing power as $92,884 in Prescott Valley-Prescott. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.

How do rents compare between Denver-Aurora-Centennial and Prescott Valley-Prescott?

Rents in Denver-Aurora-Centennial are indexed at 146.9 while Prescott Valley-Prescott is at 98.8 (national average = 100). Denver-Aurora-Centennial has higher rents.

Data sourced from official public datasets, Regional Price Parities (2024), index where national average = 100. Retrieved and formatted by PlainCost. See our methodology for details.

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.