Overall
Diff +2.7 RPP
Prescott Valley-Prescott vs Charleston-North Charleston
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Charleston-North Charleston is 2.8% more expensive than Prescott Valley-Prescott.
2.8% more expensive
Charleston-North Charleston, SC is 2.8% more expensive than Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 101.0 vs 98.3). A $100,000 salary in Prescott Valley-Prescott buys about the same as $102,755 in Charleston-North Charleston; the largest component gap is rents.
- Overall RPP 98.3 (Prescott Valley-Prescott) vs 101.0 (Charleston-North Charleston)
- $100k in Prescott Valley-Prescott ≈ $102,755 purchasing power in Charleston-North Charleston
- Rents drives the gap (+21.0 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair AZ:SC 98.3→101.0
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE AZ × SC
- 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
Goods
Diff +0.1 RPP
Services
Diff -3.2 RPP
Rents
Diff +21.0 RPP
| Category | Prescott Valley-Prescott | Charleston-North Charleston | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.3 | 101.0 | +2.7 |
| Goods | 96.2 | 96.3 | +0.1 |
| Services | 91.5 | 88.2 | -3.2 |
| Rents | 98.8 | 119.8 | +21.0 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Prescott Valley-Prescott 98.3
Charleston-North Charleston 101.0
Goods
Prescott Valley-Prescott 96.2
Charleston-North Charleston 96.3
Services
Prescott Valley-Prescott 91.5
Charleston-North Charleston 88.2
Rents
Prescott Valley-Prescott 98.8
Charleston-North Charleston 119.8
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Rents creates the largest separation: Charleston-North Charleston is 21.0 points higher. But services move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Charleston-North Charleston, SC is 2.8% more expensive than Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 2.7-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Charleston-North Charleston 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 Prescott Valley-Prescott corresponds to $102,755 in Charleston-North Charleston.
Prescott Valley-Prescott
98.3
Cost Index
Charleston-North Charleston
101.0
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Prescott Valley-Prescott would need to be in Charleston-North Charleston for the same purchasing power:
| In Prescott Valley-Prescott | In Charleston-North Charleston | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $51,378 | +$1,378 |
| $75,000 | $77,066 | +$2,066 |
| $100,000 | $102,755 | +$2,755 |
| $150,000 | $154,133 | +$4,133 |
$ in Prescott Valley-Prescott = in Charleston-North Charleston
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.3 → 101.0), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Prescott Valley-Prescott and Charleston-North Charleston share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 5.6 to 2.7 RPP points. Charleston-North Charleston remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 34.2 points between the first and latest shared releases (13.2 to 21.0 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Prescott Valley-Prescott RPP | Charleston-North Charleston RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 103.0 | 97.4 | 5.6 points Prescott Valley-Prescott higher |
| 2012 | 96.5 | 100.3 | 3.8 points Charleston-North Charleston higher |
| 2016 | 98.6 | 99.7 | 1.1 points Charleston-North Charleston higher |
| 2020 | 93.2 | 98.0 | 4.8 points Charleston-North Charleston higher |
| 2024 | 98.3 | 101.0 | 2.7 points Charleston-North Charleston 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 Charleston-North Charleston more expensive than Prescott Valley-Prescott?
Charleston-North Charleston is 2.8% more expensive than Prescott Valley-Prescott. The overall cost index is 101.0 vs 98.3 (national average = 100).
What salary in Charleston-North Charleston equals $100K in Prescott Valley-Prescott?
A $100,000 salary in Prescott Valley-Prescott has the same purchasing power as $102,755 in Charleston-North Charleston. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Prescott Valley-Prescott and Charleston-North Charleston?
Rents in Prescott Valley-Prescott are indexed at 98.8 while Charleston-North Charleston is at 119.8 (national average = 100). Charleston-North Charleston 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.