Overall
- State College
- 96.8
Diff +1.5 RPP
State College vs Prescott Valley-Prescott
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Prescott Valley-Prescott is 1.5% more expensive than State College.
1.5% more expensive
Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ is 1.5% more expensive than State College, PA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.3 vs 96.8). A $100,000 salary in State College buys about the same as $101,543 in Prescott Valley-Prescott; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 96.8 (State College) vs 98.3 (Prescott Valley-Prescott)
- $100k in State College ≈ $101,543 purchasing power in Prescott Valley-Prescott
- Services drives the gap (-18.0 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair PA:AZ 96.8→98.3
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE PA × 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.
State College
96.8
Cost Index
Prescott Valley-Prescott
98.3
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
State College, PA and Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ are a photo finish on overall price level, only 1.5 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 18.0 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 State College to $101,543 in Prescott Valley-Prescott, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- State College
- 100.7
Diff -4.4 RPP
Services
- State College
- 109.5
Diff -18.0 RPP
Rents
- State College
- 85.7
Diff +13.1 RPP
| Category | State College | Prescott Valley-Prescott | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 96.8 | 98.3 | +1.5 |
| Goods | 100.7 | 96.2 | -4.4 |
| Services | 109.5 | 91.5 | -18.0 |
| Rents | 85.7 | 98.8 | +13.1 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
State College 96.8
Prescott Valley-Prescott 98.3
Goods
State College 100.7
Prescott Valley-Prescott 96.2
Services
State College 109.5
Prescott Valley-Prescott 91.5
Rents
State College 85.7
Prescott Valley-Prescott 98.8
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
State College and Prescott Valley-Prescott share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 3.8 to 1.5 RPP points. Prescott Valley-Prescott remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 9.2 points between the first and latest shared releases (22.3 to 13.1 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | State College RPP | Prescott Valley-Prescott RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 99.2 | 103.0 | 3.8 points Prescott Valley-Prescott higher |
| 2012 | 96.7 | 96.5 | 0.2 points State College higher |
| 2016 | 101.4 | 98.6 | 2.8 points State College higher |
| 2020 | 98.0 | 93.2 | 4.8 points State College higher |
| 2024 | 96.8 | 98.3 | 1.5 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 State College would need to be in Prescott Valley-Prescott for the same purchasing power:
| In State College | In Prescott Valley-Prescott | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $50,771 | +$771 |
| $75,000 | $76,157 | +$1,157 |
| $100,000 | $101,543 | +$1,543 |
| $150,000 | $152,314 | +$2,314 |
$ in State College = in Prescott Valley-Prescott
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (96.8 → 98.3), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Prescott Valley-Prescott more expensive than State College?
Prescott Valley-Prescott is 1.5% more expensive than State College. The overall cost index is 98.3 vs 96.8 (national average = 100).
What salary in Prescott Valley-Prescott equals $100K in State College?
A $100,000 salary in State College has the same purchasing power as $101,543 in Prescott Valley-Prescott. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between State College and Prescott Valley-Prescott?
Rents in State College are indexed at 85.7 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.