Overall
- Anchorage
- 105.4
Diff +7.2 RPP
Prescott Valley-Prescott vs Anchorage
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Anchorage is 7.3% more expensive than Prescott Valley-Prescott.
7.3% more expensive
Anchorage, AK is 7.3% more expensive than Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 105.4 vs 98.3). A $100,000 salary in Prescott Valley-Prescott buys about the same as $107,292 in Anchorage; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 98.3 (Prescott Valley-Prescott) vs 105.4 (Anchorage)
- $100k in Prescott Valley-Prescott ≈ $107,292 purchasing power in Anchorage
- Services drives the gap (+20.3 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair AZ:AK 98.3→105.4
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SERVICES-LED · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE AZ × AK
- 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
Anchorage, AK is 7.3% more expensive than Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ, 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 Anchorage 20.3 points higher than Prescott Valley-Prescott. 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 Prescott Valley-Prescott to $107,292 in Anchorage, but it is not a personal spending weight.
How the Price Gap Changed
Prescott Valley-Prescott and Anchorage 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 | Prescott Valley-Prescott RPP | Anchorage RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 103.0 | 106.5 | 3.5 points Anchorage higher |
| 2012 | 96.5 | 107.2 | 10.6 points Anchorage higher |
| 2016 | 98.6 | 108.1 | 9.5 points Anchorage higher |
| 2020 | 93.2 | 103.2 | 10.0 points Anchorage higher |
| 2024 | 98.3 | 105.4 | 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 | Prescott Valley-Prescott | Anchorage | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.3 | 105.4 | +7.2 |
| Goods | 96.2 | 107.3 | +11.1 |
| Services | 91.5 | 111.8 | +20.3 |
| Rents | 98.8 | 109.9 | +11.1 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Prescott Valley-Prescott 98.3
Anchorage 105.4
Goods
Prescott Valley-Prescott 96.2
Anchorage 107.3
Services
Prescott Valley-Prescott 91.5
Anchorage 111.8
Rents
Prescott Valley-Prescott 98.8
Anchorage 109.9
Vertical line = national average (100)
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Prescott Valley-Prescott would need to be in Anchorage for the same purchasing power:
| In Prescott Valley-Prescott | In Anchorage | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $53,646 | +$3,646 |
| $75,000 | $80,469 | +$5,469 |
| $100,000 | $107,292 | +$7,292 |
| $150,000 | $160,938 | +$10,938 |
$ in Prescott Valley-Prescott = in Anchorage
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.3 → 105.4), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Prescott Valley-Prescott
98.3
Cost Index
Anchorage
105.4
Cost Index
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Anchorage more expensive than Prescott Valley-Prescott?
Anchorage is 7.3% more expensive than Prescott Valley-Prescott. The overall cost index is 105.4 vs 98.3 (national average = 100).
What salary in Anchorage equals $100K in Prescott Valley-Prescott?
A $100,000 salary in Prescott Valley-Prescott has the same purchasing power as $107,292 in Anchorage. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Prescott Valley-Prescott and Anchorage?
Rents in Prescott Valley-Prescott are indexed at 98.8 while Anchorage is at 109.9 (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.