Prescott Valley-Prescott vs Elkhart-Goshen

Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Elkhart-Goshen is 8.1% less expensive than Prescott Valley-Prescott.

8.1% less expensive

Elkhart-Goshen, IN is 8.1% less expensive than Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 90.3 vs 98.3). A $100,000 salary in Prescott Valley-Prescott buys about the same as $91,929 in Elkhart-Goshen; the largest component gap is rents.

  • Overall RPP 98.3 (Prescott Valley-Prescott) vs 90.3 (Elkhart-Goshen)
  • $100k in Prescott Valley-Prescott ≈ $91,929 purchasing power in Elkhart-Goshen
  • Rents drives the gap (-34.5 RPP points)

RPP parity plate

Pair AZ:IN 98.3→90.3

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

  • TIER-NEAR Near tier
  • CROSS-STATE AZ × IN
  • 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 Prescott Valley-Prescott would need to be in Elkhart-Goshen for the same purchasing power:

In Prescott Valley-Prescott In Elkhart-Goshen Difference
$50,000 $45,965 $-4,035
$75,000 $68,947 $-6,053
$100,000 $91,929 $-8,071
$150,000 $137,894 $-12,106
$ in Prescott Valley-Prescott = in Elkhart-Goshen

Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.3 → 90.3), 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.

Elkhart-Goshen, IN is 8.1% less expensive than Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 7.9-point overall gap.

Rents leads the difference, with Elkhart-Goshen 34.5 points lower 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 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 $91,929 in Elkhart-Goshen.

Category Breakdown

Visual Comparison

Overall
Prescott Valley-Prescott
98.3
Elkhart-Goshen
90.3
Goods
Prescott Valley-Prescott
96.2
Elkhart-Goshen
94.3
Services
Prescott Valley-Prescott
91.5
Elkhart-Goshen
86.4
Rents
Prescott Valley-Prescott
98.8
Elkhart-Goshen
64.3

Vertical line = national average (100)

Prescott Valley-Prescott
98.3
Cost Index
Elkhart-Goshen
90.3
Cost Index

How the Price Gap Changed

Prescott Valley-Prescott and Elkhart-Goshen share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap widened, moving from 6.4 to 7.9 RPP points. Prescott Valley-Prescott remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.

Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 10.2 points between the first and latest shared releases (24.2 to 34.5 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.

Release Year Prescott Valley-Prescott RPP Elkhart-Goshen RPP Relative Gap
2008 103.0 96.6 6.4 points Prescott Valley-Prescott higher
2012 96.5 92.6 3.9 points Prescott Valley-Prescott higher
2016 98.6 90.1 8.5 points Prescott Valley-Prescott higher
2020 93.2 91.0 2.2 points Prescott Valley-Prescott higher
2024 98.3 90.3 7.9 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 Elkhart-Goshen more expensive than Prescott Valley-Prescott?

Elkhart-Goshen is 8.1% less expensive than Prescott Valley-Prescott. The overall cost index is 90.3 vs 98.3 (national average = 100).

What salary in Elkhart-Goshen equals $100K in Prescott Valley-Prescott?

A $100,000 salary in Prescott Valley-Prescott has the same purchasing power as $91,929 in Elkhart-Goshen. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.

How do rents compare between Prescott Valley-Prescott and Elkhart-Goshen?

Rents in Prescott Valley-Prescott are indexed at 98.8 while Elkhart-Goshen is at 64.3 (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.