It's even worse than that, nearly the entire difference cited is based on property taxes but they use a property for comparison that doesn't exist in California

It's even worse than that, nearly the entire difference cited is based on property taxes but they use a property for comparison that doesn't exist in California, but does in Texas. As a percentage of home value, property taxes /are/ higher in Texas, but home values are also massively lower (1/3rd or less) in almost all of the state, which means that /actual taxes paid/ for property tax are nearly identical to sometimes less in Texas, /and/ because housing is cheaper, it's more affordable to actually own a home instead of renting forever at lower income quintiles. Anyone who actually looked at the data and concluded that living in California instead of Texas was a better financial deal for someone who is not a high income earner is either stupid or lying.