Overall
- Salt Lake City-Murray
- 100.9
Diff +2.6 RPP
Prescott Valley-Prescott vs Salt Lake City-Murray
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Salt Lake City-Murray is 2.7% more expensive than Prescott Valley-Prescott.
2.7% more expensive
Salt Lake City-Murray, UT is 2.7% more expensive than Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 100.9 vs 98.3). A $100,000 salary in Prescott Valley-Prescott buys about the same as $102,659 in Salt Lake City-Murray; the largest component gap is rents.
- Overall RPP 98.3 (Prescott Valley-Prescott) vs 100.9 (Salt Lake City-Murray)
- $100k in Prescott Valley-Prescott ≈ $102,659 purchasing power in Salt Lake City-Murray
- Rents drives the gap (+24.5 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair AZ:UT 98.3→100.9
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE AZ × UT
- 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 +0.2 RPP
Services
Diff -12.5 RPP
Rents
- Salt Lake City-Murray
- 123.3
Diff +24.5 RPP
| Category | Prescott Valley-Prescott | Salt Lake City-Murray | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.3 | 100.9 | +2.6 |
| Goods | 96.2 | 96.4 | +0.2 |
| Services | 91.5 | 79.0 | -12.5 |
| Rents | 98.8 | 123.3 | +24.5 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Prescott Valley-Prescott 98.3
Salt Lake City-Murray 100.9
Goods
Prescott Valley-Prescott 96.2
Salt Lake City-Murray 96.4
Services
Prescott Valley-Prescott 91.5
Salt Lake City-Murray 79.0
Rents
Prescott Valley-Prescott 98.8
Salt Lake City-Murray 123.3
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Rents creates the largest separation: Salt Lake City-Murray is 24.5 points higher. But services move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Salt Lake City-Murray, UT is 2.7% more expensive than Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 2.6-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Salt Lake City-Murray 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 $102,659 in Salt Lake City-Murray.
Prescott Valley-Prescott
98.3
Cost Index
Salt Lake City-Murray
100.9
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Prescott Valley-Prescott would need to be in Salt Lake City-Murray for the same purchasing power:
| In Prescott Valley-Prescott | In Salt Lake City-Murray | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $51,330 | +$1,330 |
| $75,000 | $76,995 | +$1,995 |
| $100,000 | $102,659 | +$2,659 |
| $150,000 | $153,989 | +$3,989 |
$ in Prescott Valley-Prescott = in Salt Lake City-Murray
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.3 → 100.9), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Prescott Valley-Prescott and Salt Lake City-Murray share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 4.5 to 2.6 RPP points. Salt Lake City-Murray remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 22.1 points between the first and latest shared releases (2.5 to 24.5 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Prescott Valley-Prescott RPP | Salt Lake City-Murray RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 103.0 | 98.5 | 4.5 points Prescott Valley-Prescott higher |
| 2012 | 96.5 | 102.2 | 5.6 points Salt Lake City-Murray higher |
| 2016 | 98.6 | 98.3 | 0.3 points Prescott Valley-Prescott higher |
| 2020 | 93.2 | 97.3 | 4.1 points Salt Lake City-Murray higher |
| 2024 | 98.3 | 100.9 | 2.6 points Salt Lake City-Murray 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 Salt Lake City-Murray more expensive than Prescott Valley-Prescott?
Salt Lake City-Murray is 2.7% more expensive than Prescott Valley-Prescott. The overall cost index is 100.9 vs 98.3 (national average = 100).
What salary in Salt Lake City-Murray equals $100K in Prescott Valley-Prescott?
A $100,000 salary in Prescott Valley-Prescott has the same purchasing power as $102,659 in Salt Lake City-Murray. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Prescott Valley-Prescott and Salt Lake City-Murray?
Rents in Prescott Valley-Prescott are indexed at 98.8 while Salt Lake City-Murray is at 123.3 (national average = 100). Salt Lake City-Murray 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.