Overall
Diff -12.8 RPP
Prescott Valley-Prescott vs Wildwood-The Villages
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Wildwood-The Villages is 13.1% less expensive than Prescott Valley-Prescott.
13.1% less expensive
Wildwood-The Villages, FL is 13.1% less expensive than Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 85.4 vs 98.3). A $100,000 salary in Prescott Valley-Prescott buys about the same as $86,941 in Wildwood-The Villages; the largest component gap is rents.
- Overall RPP 98.3 (Prescott Valley-Prescott) vs 85.4 (Wildwood-The Villages)
- $100k in Prescott Valley-Prescott ≈ $86,941 purchasing power in Wildwood-The Villages
- Rents drives the gap (-47.0 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair AZ:FL 98.3→85.4
TIER-GAP · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-GAP Clear tier gap
- CROSS-STATE AZ × FL
- SPLIT-BUDGET Split budget
- 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.
Category Breakdown
Goods
Diff +0.0 RPP
Services
Diff -2.5 RPP
Rents
Diff -47.0 RPP
| Category | Prescott Valley-Prescott | Wildwood-The Villages | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.3 | 85.4 | -12.8 |
| Goods | 96.2 | 96.2 | +0.0 |
| Services | 91.5 | 89.0 | -2.5 |
| Rents | 98.8 | 51.7 | -47.0 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Prescott Valley-Prescott 98.3
Wildwood-The Villages 85.4
Goods
Prescott Valley-Prescott 96.2
Wildwood-The Villages 96.2
Services
Prescott Valley-Prescott 91.5
Wildwood-The Villages 89.0
Rents
Prescott Valley-Prescott 98.8
Wildwood-The Villages 51.7
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Rents creates the largest separation: Wildwood-The Villages is 47.0 points lower. But goods move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ and Wildwood-The Villages, FL sit in clearly different price tiers, separated by 12.8 RPP points. At this distance, treating the same nominal salary as equivalent would materially change purchasing power.
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.
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 $86,941 in Wildwood-The Villages.
Prescott Valley-Prescott
98.3
Cost Index
Wildwood-The Villages
85.4
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Prescott Valley-Prescott would need to be in Wildwood-The Villages for the same purchasing power:
| In Prescott Valley-Prescott | In Wildwood-The Villages | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $43,471 | $-6,529 |
| $75,000 | $65,206 | $-9,794 |
| $100,000 | $86,941 | $-13,059 |
| $150,000 | $130,412 | $-19,588 |
$ in Prescott Valley-Prescott = in Wildwood-The Villages
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.3 → 85.4), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Wildwood-The Villages more expensive than Prescott Valley-Prescott?
Wildwood-The Villages is 13.1% less expensive than Prescott Valley-Prescott. The overall cost index is 85.4 vs 98.3 (national average = 100).
What salary in Wildwood-The Villages equals $100K in Prescott Valley-Prescott?
A $100,000 salary in Prescott Valley-Prescott has the same purchasing power as $86,941 in Wildwood-The Villages. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Prescott Valley-Prescott and Wildwood-The Villages?
Rents in Prescott Valley-Prescott are indexed at 98.8 while Wildwood-The Villages is at 51.7 (national average = 100). Prescott Valley-Prescott 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.