Overall
Diff -6.6 RPP
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington vs Prescott Valley-Prescott
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Prescott Valley-Prescott is 6.3% less expensive than Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington.
6.3% less expensive
Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ is 6.3% less expensive than Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.3 vs 104.8). A $100,000 salary in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington buys about the same as $93,735 in Prescott Valley-Prescott; the largest component gap is rents.
- Overall RPP 104.8 (Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington) vs 98.3 (Prescott Valley-Prescott)
- $100k in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington ≈ $93,735 purchasing power in Prescott Valley-Prescott
- Rents drives the gap (-13.1 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair MN:AZ 104.8→98.3
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · RENT-LED · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE MN × AZ
- RENT-LED Rent-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.
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington would need to be in Prescott Valley-Prescott for the same purchasing power:
| In Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington | In Prescott Valley-Prescott | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $46,868 | $-3,132 |
| $75,000 | $70,301 | $-4,699 |
| $100,000 | $93,735 | $-6,265 |
| $150,000 | $140,603 | $-9,397 |
$ in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington = in Prescott Valley-Prescott
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (104.8 → 98.3), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ is 6.3% less expensive than Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 6.6-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington is above 100 while Prescott Valley-Prescott is below it. That makes the move a change of price regime, not merely a rank swap.
Rents leads the difference, with Prescott Valley-Prescott 13.1 points lower than Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington. 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 Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington corresponds to $93,735 in Prescott Valley-Prescott.
Category Breakdown
Goods
Diff -6.8 RPP
Services
Diff -2.0 RPP
Rents
Diff -13.1 RPP
| Category | Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington | Prescott Valley-Prescott | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 104.8 | 98.3 | -6.6 |
| Goods | 103.1 | 96.2 | -6.8 |
| Services | 93.5 | 91.5 | -2.0 |
| Rents | 111.8 | 98.8 | -13.1 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 104.8
Prescott Valley-Prescott 98.3
Goods
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 103.1
Prescott Valley-Prescott 96.2
Services
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 93.5
Prescott Valley-Prescott 91.5
Rents
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 111.8
Prescott Valley-Prescott 98.8
Vertical line = national average (100)
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington
104.8
Cost Index
Prescott Valley-Prescott
98.3
Cost Index
How the Price Gap Changed
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington and Prescott Valley-Prescott share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap widened, moving from 0.1 to 6.6 RPP points. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Goods changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 3.8 points between the first and latest shared releases (3.0 to 6.8 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington RPP | Prescott Valley-Prescott RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 102.9 | 103.0 | 0.1 points Prescott Valley-Prescott higher |
| 2012 | 101.2 | 96.5 | 4.7 points Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington higher |
| 2016 | 102.3 | 98.6 | 3.7 points Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington higher |
| 2020 | 102.4 | 93.2 | 9.2 points Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington higher |
| 2024 | 104.8 | 98.3 | 6.6 points Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 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 Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington?
Prescott Valley-Prescott is 6.3% less expensive than Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington. The overall cost index is 98.3 vs 104.8 (national average = 100).
What salary in Prescott Valley-Prescott equals $100K in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington?
A $100,000 salary in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington has the same purchasing power as $93,735 in Prescott Valley-Prescott. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington and Prescott Valley-Prescott?
Rents in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington are indexed at 111.8 while Prescott Valley-Prescott is at 98.8 (national average = 100). Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 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.