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We love the Santa Cruz area and my brother lives there. Each time we consider CA, I back off because of the cost of real estate and the taxes. It especially concerns me that income I get for rental properties would be taxed if I lived in CA. But over time I start thinking perhaps I should reconsider. Soooo....if you left a cheaper State and retired to California I'd love to hear your story and how its going.
Are you only going to consider states without state income tax? Are all your rentals in TX?
The good news if you do move to let's say CA atleast you won't have to file taxes for TX.
The laws and political climate are the most important factors in choosing a place to live. If scenery and weather were all that mattered, I'd still be in sad, broken Colorado. I chose freedom, however.
I just read an article yesterday on the 15 worst states for retirement. CA was definitely one of them. My own state, NJ, was No. 2 on the list, and the adjacent state, where I work part-time, is NY, which was No. 1. That last part was a bit disconcerting. I receive a NY State Pension, which isn't taxed in NY but is taxed in NJ, so I have toyed with the idea of moving to NY at some point. Might not be a great idea.
It takes into account taxes, cost of living, health care costs, etc.
Granted NY taxes are not for everyone but from a retirement point of view, there are some breaks. Social Security is exempt. My wife will have an exempt state pension and a portion of mine will be exempt as well. Property tax increases are now capped unless voted in favor of and seniors can get a Star reduction. Sales taxes can add up but most people know how . . .
I don't know how many people move TO a state like NY or California for retirement but we are not planning to move from NY.
We moved west in 2000, but never considered CA. We had heard so much about it being expensive and the granola government that we just ignored CA. We rejected OR and WA based on the cost of living and moved to AZ which worked for us.
Having spent a portion of my formative years in Southern California, I'd love to return; but the taxes are prohibitive, especially for singles. I don't mind the high cost of real-estate; in some regards, it's an investment. But the marginal state income tax-rates are truly eye-watering.
Got my pension in TX. Talk about a cheap place to live. But the housing is getting expensive there, property taxes are high. There is no natural beauty. So, I'll get my Sag pension in Cali at 60,so I will be here for another 5 years. So other than the liberals, it's really not that bad. You can get an affordable place outside of LA, Santa Clarita,which is real nice. The state is beautiful, so you really don't have to pay for expensive vacations, like if you lived in Texas. Other than SoCal,It would be Florida for me. I'm not in a high tax bracket so state taxes are not that bad. Like they say, you gotta pay for pretty. None of the "low tax" places appeal to me. Don't let taxes dictate your life, your gonna pay them one way or the other. Oh, Trader Joes galore out here, so there is your low cost groceries. And if you have a Costco card, gas is ok, or buy a Prius.
I wouldn't recommend retiring here unless you and your family are liberal democrats. Marginal income tax rates are high in CA and if you buy property here, you will pay significant property taxes due to the home price since you are not grandfathered on Prop 13. Significant future problems exist due to underfunded state pensions as CalPERS and the state teacher unions are doing projections based on a 7.5% yearly return. I plan to move to AZ to retire due to the combination of these issues.
We moved back to California two years ago after living in Reno for 14 years and I couldn't be happier. We decided on the Sacramento area because it was much more affordable than the Bay Area and our kids all live within 90 minutes of us. We don't have much income subject to income tax so that's not really a concern, we save on property tax, car registration. Our gas and our utility bills here are about half of what they were in Reno, mainly because the weather is so mild here.
There's so much more to do here than there was in Reno, we're retired but active and we have yet to run out of places to go and things to do.
PS in spite of the concern expressed by some posters here, we have guns quite a few of them and no one has taken them away from us
I wouldn't recommend retiring here unless you and your family are liberal democrats. Marginal income tax rates are high in CA and if you buy property here, you will pay significant property taxes due to the home price since you are not grandfathered on Prop 13.
Please name one state where your property taxes are based on what the prior owner was paying? Everywhere I've ever been your taxes are based on what you pay for the house, not the value of it when it was first built. But with that said, the property tax on our home in Sacramento County about 1.1% and can't go up by more than 2% a year. (PS there are plenty of Republicans in California, there are some very red counties, i.e. Placer County)
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