Fond du Lac vs Prescott Valley-Prescott

Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Prescott Valley-Prescott is 7.2% more expensive than Fond du Lac.

7.2% more expensive

Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ is 7.2% more expensive than Fond du Lac, WI on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.3 vs 91.6). A $100,000 salary in Fond du Lac buys about the same as $107,215 in Prescott Valley-Prescott; the largest component gap is rents.

  • Overall RPP 91.6 (Fond du Lac) vs 98.3 (Prescott Valley-Prescott)
  • $100k in Fond du Lac ≈ $107,215 purchasing power in Prescott Valley-Prescott
  • Rents drives the gap (+31.5 RPP points)

RPP parity plate

Pair WI:AZ 91.6→98.3

TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · RENT-LED · BOTH-BELOW · PP-SHIFT

  • TIER-NEAR Near tier
  • CROSS-STATE WI × AZ
  • RENT-LED Rent-led gap
  • BOTH-BELOW Both below 100
  • 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.

Salary Equivalents

What a salary in Fond du Lac would need to be in Prescott Valley-Prescott for the same purchasing power:

In Fond du Lac In Prescott Valley-Prescott Difference
$50,000 $53,607 +$3,607
$75,000 $80,411 +$5,411
$100,000 $107,215 +$7,215
$150,000 $160,822 +$10,822
$ in Fond du Lac = in Prescott Valley-Prescott

Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (91.6 → 98.3), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.

What This Comparison Actually Tells You

Both metros remain below the U.S. benchmark of 100. This comparison chooses between two below-average price levels; “more expensive” here does not mean nationally expensive.

Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ is 7.2% more expensive than Fond du Lac, WI, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 6.6-point overall gap.

Rents leads the difference, with Prescott Valley-Prescott 31.5 points higher than Fond du Lac. 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 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 Fond du Lac corresponds to $107,215 in Prescott Valley-Prescott.

Category Breakdown

Visual Comparison

Overall
Fond du Lac
91.6
Prescott Valley-Prescott
98.3
Goods
Fond du Lac
93.8
Prescott Valley-Prescott
96.2
Services
Fond du Lac
91.1
Prescott Valley-Prescott
91.5
Rents
Fond du Lac
67.3
Prescott Valley-Prescott
98.8

Vertical line = national average (100)

Fond du Lac
91.6
Cost Index
Prescott Valley-Prescott
98.3
Cost Index

How the Price Gap Changed

Fond du Lac and Prescott Valley-Prescott share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 19.6 to 6.6 RPP points. Prescott Valley-Prescott remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.

Goods changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 21.5 points between the first and latest shared releases (24.0 to 2.4 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.

Release Year Fond du Lac RPP Prescott Valley-Prescott RPP Relative Gap
2008 83.4 103.0 19.6 points Prescott Valley-Prescott higher
2012 91.0 96.5 5.5 points Prescott Valley-Prescott higher
2016 88.2 98.6 10.4 points Prescott Valley-Prescott higher
2020 91.2 93.2 2.0 points Prescott Valley-Prescott higher
2024 91.6 98.3 6.6 points Prescott Valley-Prescott 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.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Prescott Valley-Prescott more expensive than Fond du Lac?

Prescott Valley-Prescott is 7.2% more expensive than Fond du Lac. The overall cost index is 98.3 vs 91.6 (national average = 100).

What salary in Prescott Valley-Prescott equals $100K in Fond du Lac?

A $100,000 salary in Fond du Lac has the same purchasing power as $107,215 in Prescott Valley-Prescott. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.

How do rents compare between Fond du Lac and Prescott Valley-Prescott?

Rents in Fond du Lac are indexed at 67.3 while Prescott Valley-Prescott is at 98.8 (national average = 100). Prescott Valley-Prescott 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.