OVER IT?! People Are Leaving California & Moving to Washington & Oregon

over it are you so over California if you're anything like me in today's video we're going to be discussing the major reasons why people are leaving California for the Northwest stay tuned [Music] welcome or welcome back to living in the Pacific Northwest with halir I'm hird and thanks for tuning in today we're talking about being over California and leaving California for the Northwest my husband and I made that same Journey 6 years ago this month actually and we left Southern California for Southwest Washington and I'm a realtor in Oregon and Washington and a certified relocation

expert and I've helped so many families relocate from California that's actually the number one state that my clients are relocating from and today we're going to talk about the reasons why so we'll talk about why we left and why so many of my clients have left California for good now if you're watching this from California whether you grew up there were born there and you might be in another state now or you're still sitting in the Golden State everybody knows why California is great and what attracts people it's the weather it's the lifestyle it's the

industry the jobs the coast the mountains like it's a beautiful state I think it's one of the most beautiful States in our country and one of the most beautiful places in the world California is the seventh largest economy and obviously a movie entertainment and Tech Hub so with so many Pros to the state let's talk about why people are leaving what are the cons why are people so fed up with California that they just can't take it anymore and and they've been there their whole lives I have clients who are retiring and they're like born

and raised in California never thought I would leave and now is the time to get out so we're going to talk about those reasons in the meantime give this video a like if you have been here before make sure you're still subscribed leave a comment that really helps the channel because it helps YouTube share this video with other people like you so do me a favor help a girl out if you're thinking about relocating to the Northwest make sure to shoot me a text at 36818 4438 I would love to help if you're considering a

move here I would love to help you whether you're looking to move to or move within the Southwest Washington and Portland metro areas and if you're sitting in California and you just kind of have this feeling you're like this isn't where I see myself long term it's just kind of like brewing and stirring inside you I've been there um that's me 7 years ago before we relocated here and so we're going to weave in some of our story we're going to talk about the reasons my clients are telling me they're moving and this is probably

going to be very relatable if you even clicked on this video that's why you're here right right so without further Ado let's jump in so despite the beautiful weather the number one reason that I hear people are leaving California these are straight from my client smile is affordability and that ranges from people who are in their late 20s early 30s getting ready to buy their first home all the way to people who are retired everyone in between that is the number one driver that I'm seeing that's causing people to leave high rent High housing prices

high taxes High Cost of Living everything in California is high is that a pun I don't know so many of my clients tell me that they are tired of being nickel and dimed by California and for us we noticed it with the roads we pay such a high renewal I remember I had a two it was my first car it was a 2006 Nissan Ultima it was white it was so cute and that car was I think it was 10 years old and it was over $300 to re-register it every year and where is that

money supposed to go well it's supposed to go to our roads so you would think in California the roads would be great no they're absolutely not the roads there are as bad as somewhere that gets ice and snow except in Southern California we didn't have any ice and snow there was no reason logical reason for our roads to be in as poor of condition as they were when every single citizen that's registering their car I mean we're talking California state of 40 million people anyway I think I'm going to get emotional on this video to

be honest with you like the last time I made a video about California side note was actually this video and we talked about what it's like living in Washington as California and that's a great video it's one of my most popular so if you haven't seen that check it out after this one and so I haven't really sat down and talked about California specifically outside of one-on-one conversations with clients and this is like where I grew up my family's still there but honestly the number and you know what we're we're getting a little off track

here sorry if you just want a One 123 Point like my channel may not be for you we're all about tangents here and making sure you get all the information you need but the number one question that my clients from California ask me when I meet them in person up here as they're considering relocating is would you ever go back to regret moving here and I tell them all the time like I could not go back to California at this point like I am a Washingtonian 100% And and I gave up my California area code

so did my client here he text me oh here's talking about Mike he's like oh here's my new number like right after he moved up here I was like oh you're done with California he's like yeah so afford so housing is a big driver so many of my clients firsttime home buyers last summer I remember helping three first-time home buyers in one month and two of them were from California and they were in their 30s and they're like we cannot afford to buy a home where we grew up like in our hometown and if we

want to own a home we have to go somewhere else and so they chose Washington for a variety of reasons I have clients that choose Oregon for different reasons but there's something about being on the west coast I think that people have this draw to staying on the west coast which is why going from California to Oregon or California to Washington is such an obvious move so affordability number one reason our housing prices here have gone up precipitously since Co no surprise and I honestly think they're going to continue to rise unless something serious changes

but it's still such a popular destination for people to move to either for a job because they're working remote and they want to live in a taxfree state and I think we're one of the best seven or eight taxfree States income tax free states that there are and you know or they're moving to Oregon because they just want our Greenery they're tired of the climate and weather we'll get to that soon but so when we're talking about expenses the housing is is a big driver for that people couldn't sell the house they have and then

buy something reasonable whether that's like going from a two-story home to one-story home for my retired client it just is very very difficult for people in California and don't even get be started on entertainment and activities cuz after you sit in traffic for 45 minutes to get somewhere you have to pay to park you can't bring an outside food the ticket prices are ridiculous it's congested it's crowded it's just not an overall great experience it's okay and I mean the weather makes up for a lot of the ales that people deal with in California so

many people will Overlook all of the cons and call it the sunshine tax and at the end of it it just becomes a place that's not easy to live because everything costs you something and so affordability number one reason why I hear people relocating to the northwest the second driver for people leaving California which is tied to affordability or more tied to finances is taxes specifically income taxes when people get to the point that they're just over it with California one of the things they start to think about is okay if I'm going to move

out of state this is what we did why not look at states that don't have income tax I'm been paying through the nose to California for state income taxes so many people if you're in those higher income brackets are paying close to 50% of their income between federal taxes and state income taxes they're like you know little tax relief sounds nice and that's why Texas is popular that's why Washington is popular that's why Florida is popular these have all been popular states to move to and for my husband and I was a driving factor I

did the math of what we were paying California in state income taxes and if we move to Washington where we don't even file state income taxes I was like this is a no-brainer like we're going to get a raise just by moving from California to Washington so that was a big Drive factor for my husband and I because obviously you're paying upwards of 13% in those top income brackets so with so many Californians paying up to half their income in taxes before they ever pay for their High housing which we already covered it just becomes

such a difficult place and people don't understand how oh well the incomes are higher in California they don't understand how you can live paycheck to paycheck so easily in the Bay Area in LA and San Diego it makes it very hard to get ahead and I think that's a driving Factor when I've spoken to clients who you know they could afford a very high-end luxury home here and they're like we're going to back it off a little bit because we want to be very comfortable we want to be fiscally conservative we want to be able

to put more money into our retirement to put money aside for our kids and in California they didn't really have that opportunity because of the taxes of the high housing costs those took up the majority of their income where they just didn't have enough left over to do the things that they want to do to get ahead I mean that's I think that's pretty Universal so this is where the taxes point of leaving California when you're over it is where Washington really shines because let's say that you're making $120,000 a year in California you are

going to owe $3,975 if you're married filing jointly whereas in Oregon Oregon's tax brackets we have less tax brackets in Oregon but they start in the higher tax brackets at a much lower portion of your income so whereas in California to get into the 8% tax bracket I think you need to be over 100,000 in household income in Oregon once you cross1 18,000 this is at least for 2023 once you cross $118,400 as a married couple all of your income is taxed at 8.75 after that so that same $120,000 household income for married filing jointly

would be paying $951 in Oregon which is more than double the state income that you would pay in California so I love Oregon I think it's a great place to live I think if you are working for some of the major Employers in Oregon and you're going to be working in Oregon anyway not a bad option to stay in Oregon however if you work remotely or if you can find work in Washington and you can live and work in Washington and you make $120,000 household income you have a zero income tax and that's if you

make 40,000 a year $120 750 doesn't matter your income tax in the state of Washington is zero and every time I see a property that I like man this is great property and I'll show Jared and I'm like look how gorgeous this organ property is and I start to do the math in my head about moving I'm like no I can't I can't justify us personally spending that amount of money annually just for the privilege to live in Oregon some people can especially if you want a shorter commute if you're working at Nike or Intel

or OSU totally understand I have clients work in those places and I wouldn't want to make the commute back and forth to Washington to still pay taxes to Oregon also so there's pros and cons to each and you just need to evaluate what is going to be best for your situation and I'd be happy to help you do that my zoom link is in the description below if you want to schedule a time to chat with me I'd be happy to discuss your options when my husband and I were relocating nobody would give us the

time of day so I know how that feels and that's one of the things once I got licensed up here in Washington I said I'm not going to be that person who doesn't take the time to answer people's questions so anyone can go book a zoom with me I'd be happy to chat with you even if you're just considering it you're just in the evaluation stage I really want to make that an accessible option to you to have someone here boots on the ground someone you can trust to chat with the next category under taxes

is property taxes and these are pretty similar across the board depending on the county and the city you live in it's going to vary slightly but most of the areas are going to be around 3/4 of a% to 1% we don't have a gotcha in Washington in terms of having high property taxes like taxes where you can pay two and 3% of your property value here in Washington we have very reasonable tax rates and because the properties in our area Southwest Washington aren't as high priced as California it's going to feel a lot more affordable

when it comes to property taxes it's so funny because when Jared and I first moved here we would look at homes and we'd like nudge each other be like look can you imagine what this house would cost in California like this is an amazing house with a City View you can see the river it's just a gorgeous house and it's way more affordable it's always like double or triple what we think it would cost if you put it somewhere in California and so we while we don't live in the lowest cost for Real Estate I

mean West Coast Real Estate is just different like this is not the Midwest you're not going to buy a single family house on an acre for 120,000 not here in Southwest Washington not in the Portland metro area but but the lifestyle you get that West Coast lifestyle The Greenery the outdoors so for myself and my ever growing Client List it is worth it for everything that you get when it comes to being in the Northwest the next tax we're going to talk about is sales tax and if you're wondering why is she talking so much

about taxes the reason is number one so many of my clients bring this up as a motivating factor for leaving California and number two for most people it will be the single largest expense of your lifetime when you add up all the taxes you pay federal income tax state income tax sales tax property tax excise tax like all the taxes for most people the largest expense of your lifetime and so for my husband and I when we were relocating it was something that we looked at to evaluate if we're going to leave California why not

put ourselves in a better position from a tax perspective and I think that people from all economic backgrounds and income points can appreciate that so in my conversations with my wealthiest clients to my clients with more of a modest income they can all appreciate being financially smart and Strat being strategic about taxes is part of that so sales tax in California on a state level is 7.25 and then obviously it varies based on the county and the city and in Washington the state rate is 6 1 12% and again in our area of Clark County

which is in Southwest Washington uh local rates range from like 8.4 to 8.7 depending on the exact City you're in now in Oregon you have no sales tax and so instead of offering no income tax like Washington organ decided to do no sales tax for I was going to say their residents but there are a lot of Washington residents that drive over the border to purchase items and I will leave it at that and the last tax I'm going to talk about if I haven't taxed you out of your eyes enough yet is that an

idiom one thing you learn about me guys I'm not good at idioms like I know the gist but remember the actual idiom it's not my strong suit so gas tax uh California is the highest Washington is number 5 and Oregon's 14 or whatever I'm image up here less important I guess if you have an electric vehicle but still good to know probably one of the lower taxes you'll pay for most people not going to be the deciding factor on which state to go to no matter how over you are California I don't think gas tax

is on the top of the list the number three reason that people are relocating and so over California and heading to the Northwest is because of quality of life now what do you mean how how in the world could you get a better quality of life than California well when we lived in California we last lived in the tacul area we had neighbors and friends that were commuting up to an hour and a half each way and I've heard I have a client who's relocating from there now that the commute is even worse today than

it was when we left 6 years ago so I don't know how you can have great quality of life if you spend 3 hours a day in your car and some people are into that maybe you love listening to audiobooks but guess what you can listen to an audiobook on your covered patio and enjoy the birds and the trees and the Privacy like quality of life is it can't be underestimated and for almost every one of my California clients quality of life is such a driving factor I keep hearing people say I want to be

more in tune with the outdoors I want to be more connected to Nature I want to be able to go hiking and I don't want to live in a concrete jungle I want trees in my backyard I want the vibrancy that comes with living in a place that is so green and people have debated me about this on the channel but the Northwest is considered a rainforest many parts obviously there's microclimates but many parts of it is are considered a rainforest yes we get a lot of rain but the benefit of that is that it

is green and beautiful and Lush year round I remember the first time I went back to California after moving here and I was like shocked it was so jarring for me my parents are still in Southern California hi Mom and Dad and going going back to where I grew up and seeing everything so Brown I remember my mom's originally from Vermont and you know she always said that she missed the green trees they like Mom what are you talking about like there's trees there there's trees there in California and now like being removed from that

and going back it just feels a little Eerie a little depressing sorry this is just my true feelings when I go back it's so dry it's so deserty it's so Brown here especially where we live live we see a river or somebody water almost every day we can take our our morning walks and and see multiple streams and waterfalls in the city there are waterfalls and so we just I don't know it's green it's blue it's it's gray sometimes yeah it's gray but the quality of life is just I can't even put into words the

pace of life is great it's a very laid-back demeanor it's still West Coast Chill Vibes versus is the hustle and bustle with the East Coast life that my parents and my husband all come from I'm a West Coast gly 100% so quality of life is is highly personal it's highly subjective what makes one person feel like they have great quality of life could be a total nightmare for someone else but there are some metrics that we can look at like income and jobs housing conditions health education Environmental Quality we have great air quality by the

way up here it's very rare that it's smoggy uh personal security Civic engagement this is huge I love the events that our cities put on it's amazing uh work life balance infrastructure and services Mobility culture and Leisure these are all things just down the list without adding too much time to the video is have improved since leaving California every single one of these areas for my husband and I has seen an increase our overall quality of life is so much better than when we lived in California and I think that's part of the reason why

I couldn't go back and I I've thought about about this like if my parents I would sooner if my parents ever needed to be close I would sooner twist their arm to move up here than I could ever go back to California I just I love it here the quality of life is something that you can't you can't put a price on like that's really what it comes down to the fourth reason why people are over it in California is climate concerns very very big topic that I'm talking about with people who are considering leaving

California they're concerned that there's more wildfires if there's not a drought then they're having flooding and it's hot hot hot hot unbearable you have to be attached to the AC all summer you can't get out and enjoy yourselves I remember when we were in Tula if we didn't leave for a run before 8:30 in the morning forget about it it was going to be too hot the entire rest of the day to go out for that run so I don't know if you can relate to that especially if you're in Southern California now Northern California

has just been like rocked year after year when it comes to wildfires and we don't get as many wildfires in our area um you do in southern Oregon but we do get the smoke depending on the weather and so sometimes it will get SMY depending on how bad the fires are down there we actually have a great video that you can watch about wildfires in Southwest Washington here super informative going back to Civic engagement this was a event that was put on by our local newspaper and had uh state employees that deal with various aspects

of wildfire safety and prevention and I think it's a really really great watch so despite the beautiful weather when you have everything from droughts right part of the reason that we left was we were concerned about living in a place that had been in a drought for so long so the longest drought in California history was from 2011 to 2017 and we left in 2018 so we just had it up to here when it came to droughts like that uncertainty and feeling like just everything is scarce because there's so many people and the resources the

natural resources to sustain the population is just not there you get your water from out of state it doesn't rain like there's just I don't know for us it felt very uncertain it just wasn't an ideal situation where we felt comfortable so whether you have drought on one hand or so much rain from these atmospheric rivers that you have flooding and mudslides landslides it's just this you get the weather but it it comes at a cost and that's a part of the sunshine tax that they don't really talk about for us it was concerning and

so when we were looking at places and you can watch our video our journey to Vancouver here where we talk about our thought process from leaving but we wanted somewhere that was more tax advantaged had four seasons and natural resources and Washington was a top state for that for us so when you're tying in these things wildfires drought flooding heat it leads to having more things like planned power outages I had clients who relocated from Central California and they're like so when is one of you guys' planned power outage it's like what are you talking

about and they're like well because of the wildfires here they give us notice that we're not going to have power for you know 24 hours at a time and they would like do these rolling blackouts to prevent wildfires and I was like that doesn't exist here like the other day we lost our power which has only happened maybe a handful of times in the six years we've been here and it was restored in an hour and a half power is not a concern of ours here like could be a concern for maybe some people for

us not a factor so when you tie in all these things though and you have these going back to quality of life and how it's not easy to live in California and that's what's leading people to be over it add into that now with these wildfires if you've had one close to your house you could lose your insurance or your insurance goes through the roof that is a problem I have a great insurance broker by the way so if you would like their contact information as you're relocating here and we're working together make sure to

shop your rates with her she is amazing and if you're moving to Clark County I have information for you about areas to avoid if you are wanting to get fire and earthquake insurance we can talk about the areas where it's easier and more difficult to get those so um one of the benefits of working with a realtor who is knowledgeable about the area who can help you fill in those gaps when you're moving somewhere that you don't know everything about that is one of the most important times to hire a realtor and to hire someone

that you trust that has the knowledge that you're looking for so again you can always email me me contact me all my contact info is in the description below I'd be happy to help you with your relocation to the Northwest whether that's Southwest Washington or the Portland metro area so yes insurance is a big factor when it comes to climate concerns and so many of my clients who've relocated here their biggest fear is that it keeps getting worse every year worse and it's just not letting up and that's one of the reasons why people are

leaving and over it now the next one might come as a surprise but part of the reason people are leaving is politics I've had so many clients who are fed up with California politics and they're looking to find something a little bit more balanced doesn't matter what side of the aisle they just feel this again this is their feeling I'm don't care what your political beliefs are I don't care if you're a political it doesn't matter to me but what my clients are telling me is that they are fed up with California in the way

it's ran and they want to move somewhere that's different that that looks at things from a more balanced perspective in their opinion and so while I don't bring up politics with my clients I'm surprised at how often and people volunteer to me how they're fed up I had a client who was born and raised in California and was from the Bay Area and even today if I talk to him about California politics that is a whole conversation he just is not for him anymore and I would say that he's a pretty balanced middle of the

road person you know I don't know if his exact political beliefs but California for him is just a touchy subject and it is for a lot of people I mean if you're thinking about moving and you've you've been there for a long time or you've grew up there you do have a very emotion attachment to it and guess what you can go back you know you can move back you can visit I like visiting and when people ask me the second most common question people ask me is like what do you miss most about California

and there's certain restaurants in La that I just love that aren't here and when we go back I visit thankfully we are getting the very first In-N-Out in Washington in Ridgefield so if you're thinking about moving to Ridgefield in the Southwest Washington area here's a video you should watch so what I'm hearing from my clients wrapping it up with politics is that they just feel like California is very liberal too liberal for their taste and depending on where you want to live in Southwest Washington and the Portland metro area you can find an area that's

going to suit your political preferences if that's important to you some people don't care if you do let me know and I can walk you through how to choose an area where you will feel the most happy because actually believe it or not Nationwide Escape keeping politics in one region to go to another like political motivated moves are a huge reason for people moving more than it's ever been in the history of our country so if that's you you are not alone I can help you find an area that's going to make you feel warm

and fuzzy so we're going to end this video with the intangibles these are the things that are not quantifiable that I don't have stats to back up what I'm saying but this is just my personal anecdotal experience and tracks with clients as I've followed up with them they've moved here followed up with them asked them how they're settling in what their experience has been like have they made friends by the way one of the things that's very important to my husband and I in helping people relocate is creating community so we have events almost every

month one give you something to do when you get up here explore the area and also to meet new people this is one of the things that I'm the most proud about when it comes to the way that we run our business is how we try to take people under our wing and make them feel welcome because maybe you're moving here and you have friends and you have family here or maybe you're like us and you don't know a single person except for myself and my husband here and that's okay I can give you tips

on how to make friends and how to build a social network here and you can also utilize our client events to build that social network and I'll give you a little teaser the friendships and relationships that you'll make here are more likely to be int spaced what are you into are you into hiking are you into knitting to reading to bicycling more than what you do what your career is networking so that people can get ahead use you to get ahead use you to to get a job somewhere or something like that like it's a

lot less superficial it's more substantive the relationships are deeper you can rely on people when people say hey we should get together for lunch or we should meet up and do something they mean it talking to you la love LA but anyone who spent any time there knows that that's the way things are so the intangibles I would say is the experiences that you have it's the people it's the lack of congestion it's the ease of doing things it's the experience driving down the highway and looking out and seeing a waterfall from the freeway or

just being surrounded by trees if you're just driving through Vancouver on the highway you are missing the city of Vancouver because there's so many trees along the highway you really can't see what the homes are like you can't see what the shopping centers are like you have to get off and get on the streets and go in the neighborhoods and the experience of just driving to the airport going over the 205 bridge and there's like the river on both sides and there's government Island and you look to the East and you see Mount Hood and

you look to the west and you can see downtown Portland and it's just such a good experience living here and the people are amazing that like out of anywhere my husband's lived in four corners of the country East Coast the South California and now the Northwest and you know he's always saying that the people here are the most friendly the most hospitable people out of anywhere that he's lived and that's one of the things that I think has enriched our experience here so much is is the people that we've met and made friends with are

just those like lifetime connection type of friendships that I don't know how to explain it quality of people here topnotch and I can't say the same for the entire state but in Southwest Washington I think we have like a Southwest Washington Hospitality here there Southern Hospitality we have Southwest Washington hospitality and that's one of the things we love about our specific area Portland lots of friendly people you know great I think from my client's experience it's kind of depends but Portland's a it's a big Metro there's people from all over the country there whereas here

in Southwest Washington it's a little bit more of a smaller Community it's a little tighter knit and as you get into those other cities like Battleground ugal cus Richfield Woodland you you kind of start to notice the same thing so that's one of the things that I would say is intangible but we just love the experience of living here the day-to-day experiences the people and then just the ease of life here it's I don't know it's great I couldn't be happier and I hope if you move here too if you are over California and you're

thinking about coming to the Northwest I hope that you feel as filled as my husband and I do here that is my biggest goal and that is the the ethos that I operate with when it comes to finding the right home in the right neighborhood and making sure that this is a good fit for you that is what my job is and what my ultimate goal is so if you'd like to talk to me about moving to the Northwest please reach out I would be more than happy to help you I hope this video was

helpful if you have had it up to Hero California and you're ready to get out now it's the time couldn't pick a better time once we decided once my husband and I decided that we were ready to leave every month was excruciating because we weren't doing new things or opening up new chapters everything was just about closing chapters and and getting up here and that was probably from the time that we were like yes we're absolutely doing this the moment we moved was like one of the longest periods of my life and now I'm like

I can't believe we've been up here 6 years it's amazing so long no place is perfect and I'm not saying that Washington or Oregon Portland metro South with Washington I'm not saying it's perfect but I wanted to share for the people who are over California like we were like my clients have been who move up here why they left California what they were hoping to get by moving to the Northwest and how they feel after the fact and so I hope I was able to convey that to you today because maybe you find it relatable

and you're hoping that Washington or Oregon is going to be the place for you I usually find that my clients who are moving for what they think they're getting out of Washington in terms of being more Outdoors better pace of life better quality of life more affordable housing like those things majority of the time my clients feel like it hit the mark for them and they couldn't be happier and so that's what I want for you place isn't perfect but it is pretty darn good so with that I will catch you guys on the next

video by the way YouTube seems to think that you will like one of these videos so if you watch it make sure to give it a like give it a comment engage I would love to hear from you guys ciao e