California is still the most populous state in the country, and it is still losing people to the rest of it. A March 2026 UC Berkeley study put the state's net population loss at roughly 150,000 people in 2025. The Public Policy Institute of California has tracked net domestic out-migration for more than a decade, and the profile of who leaves has shifted: it is no longer mostly lower-income households priced out of the coast, but increasingly families from higher-income neighborhoods doing a deliberate calculation.
- 150,000
- net residents California lost in 2025 alone
- #1
- Nevada is the top per-capita destination for Californians (2016–2025)
- $670/mo
- average housing savings for Californians who moved out of state
- 0%
- Nevada state income tax — on wages, capital gains, retirement and Social Security
The six reasons, ranked by how often clients say them first
1. The highest state income tax in the country
California taxes income at up to 12.3%, plus a 1% Mental Health Services surcharge above $1 million, for a 13.3% top rate — the highest in the nation. Capital gains are taxed as ordinary income, so a business sale or a stock windfall is hit at the same rate. Nevada has no personal income tax at all. For most households the difference is the single largest line item in the relocation math.
2. Housing costs roughly double
UC Berkeley's 2026 study found Californians who moved out of state paid an average of $1,706 a month for housing versus $2,376 in California. Seven years after moving, they were 48% more likely to own a home. In the Las Vegas valley the same budget that rents a two-bedroom in Orange County buys a four-bedroom with a pool.
3. Everything else costs more too
The gap isn't just the mortgage. Berkeley's comparison put California gasoline about 40% above the states people move to, utilities about 61% higher and groceries about 11% higher. Nevada's cost-of-living index sits close to the national average; California's is among the highest in the country.
4. Business, regulation and insurance
Owners and independent professionals cite California's layered regulation, the $800 minimum franchise tax, rising workers' comp and the homeowners-insurance retreat from wildfire zones. Nevada levies no corporate or personal income tax and has become a favored domicile for LLCs, trusts and retirement accounts. Ron has owned and operated multiple businesses and structures deals with that lens.
5. Traffic, density and space
Las Vegas is a metro of 2.3 million people that still drives like a mid-sized city. Master-planned communities in Henderson and Summerlin put parks, trails and top-rated schools inside the neighborhood, and the newest homes in the valley are built to a standard most California buyers have not seen since the 1990s.
6. Sunshine, safety and proximity to home
Southern Nevada sees roughly 300 days of sunshine a year with no wildfire-season evacuations, no earthquake retrofits and no marine layer. Family in Los Angeles is a four-hour drive or a 50-minute flight; San Diego, the Bay Area and Sacramento all have multiple daily nonstops from Harry Reid International. You leave California without leaving Californians.
Where Californians actually go
Texas takes the largest raw number of Californians, followed by Arizona, Washington and Nevada. But scale that by population and the picture changes: Nevada received about 226 Californians per 10,000 residents each year from 2016 to 2025, the highest rate in the nation, and on net California sends Nevada 81 people per 10,000 annually. Roughly one in four newcomers to Southern Nevada holds a California license plate when they arrive.
Three things explain Nevada's pull. First, it is the only zero-income-tax state that borders California, which matters when family, business partners and clients are still in Los Angeles or the Bay Area. Second, Las Vegas and Henderson have a large, modern housing stock at roughly half of California's median price. Third, the lifestyle is a lateral move rather than a downgrade: same sunshine, same outdoor culture, a real airport, and a restaurant scene that has quietly become one of the best in the West.
Does leaving actually work out?
The Berkeley researchers followed movers after they left. Despite earning about 8% less on average in their new states, lower living costs more than made up the difference; the study's lead concluded that "people who leave are improving their financial positions." After seven years, former Californians were 48% more likely to own a home than if they had stayed. Their average housing cost fell from $2,376 to $1,706 a month.
What this means if you're the one leaving
The decision is rarely one thing. It is the tax bill plus the insurance renewal plus the commute plus the realisation that the house you can afford in Henderson has a pool and a casita. Start with the numbers — the California vs. Nevada tax comparison and the cost-of-living breakdown — then look at where Californians actually settle, and use the moving checklist so the residency change holds up if California asks.
