Overall
- Rochester
- 97.0
Diff +1.2 RPP
Rochester vs Prescott Valley-Prescott
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Prescott Valley-Prescott is 1.3% more expensive than Rochester.
1.3% more expensive
Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ is 1.3% more expensive than Rochester, NY on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.3 vs 97.0). A $100,000 salary in Rochester buys about the same as $101,257 in Prescott Valley-Prescott; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 97.0 (Rochester) vs 98.3 (Prescott Valley-Prescott)
- $100k in Rochester ≈ $101,257 purchasing power in Prescott Valley-Prescott
- Services drives the gap (-41.8 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair NY:AZ 97.0→98.3
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE NY × AZ
- SPLIT-BUDGET Split budget
- BOTH-BELOW Both below 100
- PP-PAR PP near-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.
Rochester
97.0
Cost Index
Prescott Valley-Prescott
98.3
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Rochester, NY and Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ are a photo finish on overall price level, only 1.2 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Services creates the largest separation: Prescott Valley-Prescott is 41.8 points lower. But services 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 Rochester to $101,257 in Prescott Valley-Prescott, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Rochester
- 99.7
Diff -3.5 RPP
Services
- Rochester
- 133.2
Diff -41.8 RPP
Rents
- Rochester
- 87.5
Diff +11.3 RPP
| Category | Rochester | Prescott Valley-Prescott | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 97.0 | 98.3 | +1.2 |
| Goods | 99.7 | 96.2 | -3.5 |
| Services | 133.2 | 91.5 | -41.8 |
| Rents | 87.5 | 98.8 | +11.3 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Rochester 97.0
Prescott Valley-Prescott 98.3
Goods
Rochester 99.7
Prescott Valley-Prescott 96.2
Services
Rochester 133.2
Prescott Valley-Prescott 91.5
Rents
Rochester 87.5
Prescott Valley-Prescott 98.8
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
Rochester and Prescott Valley-Prescott share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap held broadly steady, moving from 2.2 to 1.2 RPP points. Prescott Valley-Prescott remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 11.5 points between the first and latest shared releases (53.2 to 41.8 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Rochester RPP | Prescott Valley-Prescott RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 100.8 | 103.0 | 2.2 points Prescott Valley-Prescott higher |
| 2012 | 98.5 | 96.5 | 2.0 points Rochester higher |
| 2016 | 99.8 | 98.6 | 1.2 points Rochester higher |
| 2020 | 97.3 | 93.2 | 4.1 points Rochester higher |
| 2024 | 97.0 | 98.3 | 1.2 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.
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Rochester would need to be in Prescott Valley-Prescott for the same purchasing power:
| In Rochester | In Prescott Valley-Prescott | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $50,629 | +$629 |
| $75,000 | $75,943 | +$943 |
| $100,000 | $101,257 | +$1,257 |
| $150,000 | $151,886 | +$1,886 |
$ in Rochester = in Prescott Valley-Prescott
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (97.0 → 98.3), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Prescott Valley-Prescott more expensive than Rochester?
Prescott Valley-Prescott is 1.3% more expensive than Rochester. The overall cost index is 98.3 vs 97.0 (national average = 100).
What salary in Prescott Valley-Prescott equals $100K in Rochester?
A $100,000 salary in Rochester has the same purchasing power as $101,257 in Prescott Valley-Prescott. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Rochester and Prescott Valley-Prescott?
Rents in Rochester are indexed at 87.5 while Prescott Valley-Prescott is at 98.8 (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.