Moving from California to Texas: What the Census Data Actually Shows

The California-to-Texas migration is one of the cleanest stories in U.S. internal migration data. The IRS Statistics of Income tracks tax-return moves; the Census ACS tracks lived migration. Both confirm the same thing: a sustained, sizable net flow from California to Texas that has not slowed despite housing price increases in Austin, Dallas, and Houston.

The headline numbers

California median home value sits near $725,000 (ACS5 2019–2023). Texas sits near $280,000. California median household income is about $96,000; Texas is about $76,000. The income gap is real but narrower than the housing gap.

Net result: a household earning the California median spends roughly 2.5x as much of its income on housing as the same household would in Texas. That arithmetic is what's pulling 200,000+ Californians to Texas every year.

What the headline misses: property taxes

California's effective property tax rate is about 0.7% — among the lowest in the country, thanks to Proposition 13. Texas has no state income tax but funds local government almost entirely from property tax. Effective rates run 1.7–2.1%.

On a $400,000 Texas home, that's $7,000–8,500/year in property tax versus $2,800/year on the same-priced California home. The total California state and local tax bill on a typical middle-class household is still higher than Texas, but the gap is much smaller than the no-state-income-tax headline implies.

• California median home value: ~$725,000
• Texas median home value: ~$280,000
• California effective property tax rate: ~0.7%
• Texas effective property tax rate: ~1.8%
• California top marginal income tax: 13.3% (over $1M)
• Texas state income tax: 0%

Metro-level comparisons that matter

Los Angeles metro vs Dallas–Fort Worth: median home value $850,000 vs $310,000; commute 30.6 vs 27.4 minutes; bachelor's degree share 35% vs 36%.

San Francisco metro vs Austin: median home value $1.1M vs $480,000; bachelor's degree share 49% vs 47%; median age 39 vs 35.

San Diego vs Houston: median home value $695,000 vs $235,000; commute 25 vs 27 minutes; child population share 21% vs 25%.

The structural pattern: housing is dramatically cheaper in Texas, education levels are comparable in the major metros, and the demographic profile is younger.

What doesn't change

Income for similar jobs is roughly equivalent in major Texas metros to mid-tier California. The cost gap shrinks once you move to coastal or premium Texas neighborhoods. And summers in Houston, Dallas, and Austin are objectively harsher than anywhere on the California coast.

Use the City Zip Compare tool to run the head-to-head numbers on the specific neighborhoods you're considering before committing.