Overall
Diff -0.3 RPP
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk is 0.3% less expensive than Prescott Valley-Prescott.
Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC is 0.3% less expensive than Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 97.9 vs 98.3). A $100,000 salary in Prescott Valley-Prescott buys about the same as $99,680 in Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk; the largest component gap is services.
RPP parity plate
Pair AZ:VA 98.3→97.9
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR
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.
Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ and Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC are a photo finish on overall price level, only 0.3 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Services creates the largest separation: Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk is 1.9 points lower. But rents and goods move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Comparable population context is incomplete for this pair, so no market-scale explanation is inferred from the price indexes.
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.
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 $99,680 in Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Diff -0.3 RPP
Diff +0.5 RPP
Diff -1.9 RPP
Diff +1.0 RPP
| Category | Prescott Valley-Prescott | Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.3 | 97.9 | -0.3 |
| Goods | 96.2 | 96.8 | +0.5 |
| Services | 91.5 | 89.6 | -1.9 |
| Rents | 98.8 | 99.8 | +1.0 |
Vertical line = national average (100)
What a salary in Prescott Valley-Prescott would need to be in Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk for the same purchasing power:
| In Prescott Valley-Prescott | In Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $49,840 | $-160 |
| $75,000 | $74,760 | $-240 |
| $100,000 | $99,680 | $-320 |
| $150,000 | $149,521 | $-479 |
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.3 → 97.9), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk is 0.3% less expensive than Prescott Valley-Prescott. The overall cost index is 97.9 vs 98.3 (national average = 100).
A $100,000 salary in Prescott Valley-Prescott has the same purchasing power as $99,680 in Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
Rents in Prescott Valley-Prescott are indexed at 98.8 while Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk is at 99.8 (national average = 100). Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk has higher rents.
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.