Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater vs Prescott Valley-Prescott

Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Prescott Valley-Prescott is 5.2% less expensive than Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater.

5.2% less expensive

Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ is 5.2% less expensive than Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater, WA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.3 vs 103.7). A $100,000 salary in Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater buys about the same as $94,777 in Prescott Valley-Prescott; the largest component gap is rents.

  • Overall RPP 103.7 (Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater) vs 98.3 (Prescott Valley-Prescott)
  • $100k in Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater ≈ $94,777 purchasing power in Prescott Valley-Prescott
  • Rents drives the gap (-17.9 RPP points)

RPP parity plate

Pair WA:AZ 103.7→98.3

TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · RENT-LED · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT

  • TIER-NEAR Near tier
  • CROSS-STATE WA × 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 Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater would need to be in Prescott Valley-Prescott for the same purchasing power:

In Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater In Prescott Valley-Prescott Difference
$50,000 $47,388 $-2,612
$75,000 $71,083 $-3,917
$100,000 $94,777 $-5,223
$150,000 $142,165 $-7,835
$ in Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater = in Prescott Valley-Prescott

Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (103.7 → 98.3), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.

What This Comparison Actually Tells You

Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ is 5.2% less expensive than Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater, WA, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 5.4-point overall gap.

This route crosses the national benchmark: Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater 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 17.9 points lower than Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater. 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 Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater corresponds to $94,777 in Prescott Valley-Prescott.

Category Breakdown

Visual Comparison

Overall
Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater
103.7
Prescott Valley-Prescott
98.3
Goods
Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater
105.0
Prescott Valley-Prescott
96.2
Services
Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater
91.7
Prescott Valley-Prescott
91.5
Rents
Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater
116.7
Prescott Valley-Prescott
98.8

Vertical line = national average (100)

Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater
103.7
Cost Index
Prescott Valley-Prescott
98.3
Cost Index

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Prescott Valley-Prescott more expensive than Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater?

Prescott Valley-Prescott is 5.2% less expensive than Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater. The overall cost index is 98.3 vs 103.7 (national average = 100).

What salary in Prescott Valley-Prescott equals $100K in Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater?

A $100,000 salary in Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater has the same purchasing power as $94,777 in Prescott Valley-Prescott. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.

How do rents compare between Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater and Prescott Valley-Prescott?

Rents in Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater are indexed at 116.7 while Prescott Valley-Prescott is at 98.8 (national average = 100). Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater 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.