The Prescott area has pulled nearly even with cities around the nation for cost-of-living purposes. With a national norm of 100.0 in the quarterly cost-of-living survey conducted by the Council for Community and Economic Research, Prescott's composite score came in at 100.3-nearly the national norm. This is the closest Prescott has been to the national norm in many years. Moderating costs for real estate helped the overall average. The housing portion of the composite index was 112.5, meaning that housing costs here were 12.5% above the national norm. Other sub-indexes showed costs lower than the national average. Utility costs were at 93.1 (6.9% lower than the national average), tranportation costs came in low at 89.5 and miscellaneous goods and services were at 93.5.

 

Other Arizona cities participating in this survey came in with composite indexes of 112.4 (Flagstaff), 108.9 (Lake Havasu City/Kingman), 94.5 (Phoenix), 99.1 (Sierra Vista-Douglas) and 95.4 (Tucson).