I lived in San Diego for many years, I'm aware of the trade-offs. My standard of living would decrease substantially if I moved back to California. Property tax

I lived in San Diego for many years, I'm aware of the trade-offs. My standard of living would decrease substantially if I moved back to California. Property taxes are much lower, but house prices for similar houses are much higher. In fact, property taxes are not typically less than half of Texas. I think you mean that property tax rates are lower, but given the difference in house prices, that doesn't work out to half. For example, WalletHub[0] says that California's median home value is $573,200, resulting in property taxes of $4,279 at a rate of 0.75%. In Texas, on the other hand, the rate is more than double: 1.75%! But the median home value is $202,600, so the taxes end up being lower: $3,520. In my case, home values in both cases would be more than double that, and so would taxes. To be clear, we own this house outright. At this point we could sell it and invest the proceeds in index funds, and cover rent entirely by withdrawing about 3% returns per year. After the first year, that would all be long-term capital gains, too. 0. https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-the-highest-and-lowest-property-taxes/11585 https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-the-highest-and-lowest...