Overall
- Mount Vernon-Anacortes
- 102.4
Diff +4.2 RPP
Prescott Valley-Prescott vs Mount Vernon-Anacortes
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Mount Vernon-Anacortes is 4.3% more expensive than Prescott Valley-Prescott.
4.3% more expensive
Mount Vernon-Anacortes, WA is 4.3% more expensive than Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 102.4 vs 98.3). A $100,000 salary in Prescott Valley-Prescott buys about the same as $104,262 in Mount Vernon-Anacortes; the largest component gap is rents.
- Overall RPP 98.3 (Prescott Valley-Prescott) vs 102.4 (Mount Vernon-Anacortes)
- $100k in Prescott Valley-Prescott ≈ $104,262 purchasing power in Mount Vernon-Anacortes
- Rents drives the gap (+9.4 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair AZ:WA 98.3→102.4
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · RENT-LED · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE AZ × WA
- 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 Prescott Valley-Prescott would need to be in Mount Vernon-Anacortes for the same purchasing power:
| In Prescott Valley-Prescott | In Mount Vernon-Anacortes | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $52,131 | +$2,131 |
| $75,000 | $78,197 | +$3,197 |
| $100,000 | $104,262 | +$4,262 |
| $150,000 | $156,394 | +$6,394 |
$ in Prescott Valley-Prescott = in Mount Vernon-Anacortes
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.3 → 102.4), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Mount Vernon-Anacortes, WA is 4.3% more expensive than Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 4.2-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Mount Vernon-Anacortes 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 Mount Vernon-Anacortes 9.4 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 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 $104,262 in Mount Vernon-Anacortes.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Mount Vernon-Anacortes
- 105.0
Diff +8.8 RPP
Services
Diff +4.6 RPP
Rents
- Mount Vernon-Anacortes
- 108.2
Diff +9.4 RPP
| Category | Prescott Valley-Prescott | Mount Vernon-Anacortes | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.3 | 102.4 | +4.2 |
| Goods | 96.2 | 105.0 | +8.8 |
| Services | 91.5 | 96.0 | +4.6 |
| Rents | 98.8 | 108.2 | +9.4 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Prescott Valley-Prescott 98.3
Mount Vernon-Anacortes 102.4
Goods
Prescott Valley-Prescott 96.2
Mount Vernon-Anacortes 105.0
Services
Prescott Valley-Prescott 91.5
Mount Vernon-Anacortes 96.0
Rents
Prescott Valley-Prescott 98.8
Mount Vernon-Anacortes 108.2
Vertical line = national average (100)
Prescott Valley-Prescott
98.3
Cost Index
Mount Vernon-Anacortes
102.4
Cost Index
How the Price Gap Changed
Prescott Valley-Prescott and Mount Vernon-Anacortes share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap widened, moving from 0.1 to 4.2 RPP points. Mount Vernon-Anacortes remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 22.2 points between the first and latest shared releases (17.6 to 4.6 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Prescott Valley-Prescott RPP | Mount Vernon-Anacortes RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 103.0 | 102.9 | 0.1 points Prescott Valley-Prescott higher |
| 2012 | 96.5 | 98.7 | 2.1 points Mount Vernon-Anacortes higher |
| 2016 | 98.6 | 101.4 | 2.8 points Mount Vernon-Anacortes higher |
| 2020 | 93.2 | 102.1 | 8.9 points Mount Vernon-Anacortes higher |
| 2024 | 98.3 | 102.4 | 4.2 points Mount Vernon-Anacortes 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 Mount Vernon-Anacortes more expensive than Prescott Valley-Prescott?
Mount Vernon-Anacortes is 4.3% more expensive than Prescott Valley-Prescott. The overall cost index is 102.4 vs 98.3 (national average = 100).
What salary in Mount Vernon-Anacortes equals $100K in Prescott Valley-Prescott?
A $100,000 salary in Prescott Valley-Prescott has the same purchasing power as $104,262 in Mount Vernon-Anacortes. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Prescott Valley-Prescott and Mount Vernon-Anacortes?
Rents in Prescott Valley-Prescott are indexed at 98.8 while Mount Vernon-Anacortes is at 108.2 (national average = 100). Mount Vernon-Anacortes 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.