Arizona

Evaluating Arizona as a relocation target starts with the statewide BEA Regional Price Parity of 100.7 - where 100 is the national average, so every point above or below translates to percent-level cost of living difference. Housing costs in Arizona index at 106.8, goods at 95.4, and services at 92.3. HUD Fair Market Rents averaged across Arizona counties put a 2-bedroom at $1,419/month, the figure HUD uses to cap Section 8 voucher payments, so it reflects real submarket rents rather than listings bias.

On the income side, BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics report a statewide median salary of $72,019 with a mean of $76,149 across 3,200,320 tracked jobs. For safety context, FBI UCR data shows a violent crime rate of 429 per 100,000 residents and a property crime rate of 1786 per 100K. These state-level reads let you benchmark Arizona against both your origin state and national medians before zooming into specific metros.

Family and education costs often decide a move. Department of Labor data for Arizona shows center-based infant care running $11,301/year, preschool at $8,667/year, and toddler care at $8,667/year. Arizona contains 7 metropolitan statistical areas in our dataset - Flagstaff, Lake Havasu City-Kingman, Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler and more - each with its own rent, wage and crime profile that can diverge sharply from the statewide average. The composite Life Score of 47.7/100 (D) folds all seven federal sources into one number for quick comparison.