For owners with equity
The Financial Case for Leaving California
This page is about one transaction: selling a California home and buying in another state. What changes, by how much, and what does not change at all. If you rent, none of this applies to you, and the moving resources will serve you better.
1. Equity conversion
The core of the case. The same sale proceeds buy a different house, a different loan, and a different monthly payment depending on where they land. Against a California median home value of $725,800 and a median property tax bill of $5,114, the medians elsewhere look like this:
- Texas
Median home value $296,900, median property tax $4,274, median monthly cost for owners with a mortgage $2,071.
- North Carolina
Median home value $308,600, median property tax $1,880, median monthly cost for owners with a mortgage $1,578.
- Idaho
Median home value $428,600, median property tax $2,101, median monthly cost for owners with a mortgage $1,686.
These are Census medians for current homeowners, not estimates for a new purchase. Your number depends on your house, which is what the equity report is for. All 49 comparisons live on the states page.
2. Property tax
This one is routinely oversold, so here is the accurate version. California's effective property tax rate is comparatively low because of Proposition 13. What is high is the dollar amount, driven by home values. Moving usually means a smaller tax bill at a higher rate, and in several popular destinations the rate is dramatically higher.
The full state-by-state comparison, with sources and the year each figure covers, is on the tax comparison page.
3. State income tax
Several destination states levy no state income tax at all. What that is worth to you annually depends entirely on your income and its source: it matters most if you are still earning wages, and much less if your income is primarily Social Security or Roth distributions. The tax section on each state page states that state's treatment plainly.
4. The closing cost credit
When you sell in California and buy through a partner agent in your destination state, you receive a closing cost credit at your purchase. It costs you nothing: it is funded out of the partner agent's referral fee, not added to your price. The mechanics and eligibility rules are on the credit page.
The other side
What does not improve
Every page making this argument lists the gains. These are the costs that follow you or get worse, and they belong in the same spreadsheet.
Insurance
Several destination states carry their own hazard pricing: hail, hurricane, tornado, flood. You are trading one risk profile for another, not leaving risk behind, and in some markets premiums are climbing faster than California's.
Utilities
Heating through a Midwest or Northeast winter and cooling through a Gulf summer both cost real money. Mild California coastal weather is a genuine financial asset that does not fit in the equity comparison.
Your Prop 13 assessed value
If you have owned your home for a long time, part of your low tax bill is an assessed value far below market. That protection does not transfer. A purchase in another state is assessed at what you paid, under that state's rules, from day one.
Distance from family
Flights, holidays, and grandchildren growing up on video calls. For many households this is the largest cost of the move, and no column in a spreadsheet captures it.
Not sure which side of this you land on? The decision framework walks through it question by question, and it is built to let you answer no.
Put your own numbers on it
Your equity report, an introduction to a vetted destination agent, and a closing cost credit at your purchase. Free either way.