The Great Pandemic Wealth Migration
The latest IRS data shows the movement of taxpayers and income from high-tax states is accelerating
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US demographics: pandemic has left Americans bored with the seaboard
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There is no natural law that dictates famous big cities have a monopoly on prosperity and cachet
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Austin Loses Pandemic-Boomtown Halo With Out-of-Town Homebuyers
The Texas capital, where prices have skyrocketed, no longer looks a bargain to people seeking an exit from high-cost areas.
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Wow, we are now reversing the migration pattern. I bet Mexico wishes theyâd build that wall. 
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We are looking to leave. AND we own and HHI is fairly high. TOO EXPENSIVE HERE.
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I remember you saying you were evaluating the Raleigh area as an option. Is that where you would go? @girlykick
yes, we are seriously considering there as a lot of family in the general area. Honestly, the only reason we stay here is CA is âexcitingâ from a professional perspective, both for me and DH, lots of cool tech stuff going on, and I do EVs/Energy and CA really pushing the envelope there. but donât love living here.
What are the reasons? if you donât mind sharing. Is that only family?
definitely family - parents are getting older and it kills me that we canât be there in a pinch. but honestly, everything is high. sales tax is 10.5% in Alameda County, Gas is at 6.50 for the cheapest, food is expensive, childcare - a âcheapâ camp is $350/week, where as friends in NC pay $190/week per child.
what it does is eats away at disposable income. So instead of taking that trip to Europe or saving money to buy a second home, we are paying taxes and increased costs. So even if our HHI is 400k+, the lifestyle feels like we are a lot less than living in other places. and its exhausting. Everything is crowded, from swim lessons to the highway to the schools. DH and I are both lucky that we WFH with me going in 1x a week (and that too, I donât have to if something comes up, as my boss is nice), and we are still feeling stretched thin. and this is with FLEXIBLE, UNDERSTANDING, high paying JOBs. meaning we have it better than 99% of the people here.
also, the public schools are shit here and we live in a âgoodâ school district. They didnât even offer the spelling bee, there is no offer of math competitions, I honestly donât think the kids are learning enough in school, and there is was no science fair or even option. I compare this to where I grew up in Indiana, and while Indiana has its issues, ALL of these things were on offer at my elementary in Indiana (they still are). I truly feel that we are compromising my childrenâs education by sending them to public schools here (even in a good school district like Dublin), yet private is $50k/year which would basically eat up any disposable income we have after the cost of living here. (weâve considered it and done the budget to do it, but decided against it as it would be a stretch)
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From a financial perspective, I guess the implicit premise in your answer is that the real(adjusted for Cost of living) income will be equal or more in Raleigh compared to Bay Area .
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Agree.
went to Houston about 2 months ago to check it out. Things are not cheap over there, a lot of things is about same as bay area. Food is no where close to bay area. groceries/fruits no where close as fresh/variety as here. Property tax is ridiculously high also. Then whatâs good over there? ppl are NORMAL. Will be looking to move sometime before my daughter reach school age , going to be lot of sacrifices.
Why Houston then? Itâs a big country. If I was going to that area, I think Iâd go Galveston and be on the gulf.
decent size chinese community is the main reason, probably sugar land/katy
What so good about Houston? Met a few people in Austin who migrate from Houston. They donât seem to like Houston.
In that case, why not Plano?
Still havenât moved? Felt like you been talking about it for like 2 years. I know itâs not easy. Good luck!
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