.png)
1 year ago
18
Rich Californians are flocking to Las Vegas, drawn by cheaper property prices, less crime and no personal income tax in Nevada, new house search data reveals.
Vegas was the second most popular place in the US to move to over the summer, with the majority of people coming from Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego, according to real estate brokerage Redfin.
Southern California and Nevada have a similar climate and culture, but Nevada benefits from lower taxes and a cheaper cost of living.
Celebrities like Mark Wahlberg and Dean Cain have moved to Vegas from California in the past year selling their expensive homes in exchange for more space and safety for their families.
Homebuyers are also moving to Vegas from other big cities including Seattle, New York, Chicago and Washington DC.
Homebuyers are looking to move to Las Vegas from major cities across the US
The lion's share of people looking to move to Las Vegas come from Los Angeles
Thousands of Californians have left the Golden State looking to escape the rampant homelessness and high cost of living
The research from Redfin is based on two million homebuyers' search data.
Only Sacramento beat Vegas for the most popular place to move to - with it's affordable housing drawing rich families from Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Las Vegas benefits from relatively low house prices - the median home is $412,000, less than half the price of Los Angeles at $999,000.
Over 4,800 people looked to move to Las Vegas from Los Angeles over the summer according to Redfin.
And earlier this year, DailyMail.com revealed nearly 17,000 people have surrendered California driving licenses to the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles.
As well as being drawn by lower house prices and taxes, homebuyers are fleeing stringent regulations and high crime rates in California.
Alexis Michaud, a real estate agent for Vegas-based brokers the Mullin Group, told DailyMail.com: 'The mansion tax in California has frustrated a lot of Californians.
'That, combined with their income tax rate, has caused so many Californians to come to Nevada, a tax-free, business-friendly environment.'
Last year a record-breaking 2,000 luxury homes were sold in southern Nevada for an average price of $1.8million, according to a report by the Nevada State Bank
Dean Cain moved from southern California to Nevada last year praising its quietness and lower cost of living
Mark Wahlberg left Los Angeles for Las Vegas in 2022, saying he wanted to give his kids a 'better life'
The Superman actor, Cain, moved to Vegas last year, telling The Messenger: 'I had to leave California.
'California has gone crazy in a sense. There's been so much. Look at the taxation. Look at the regulations.
'Look at the silly laws that have been passed. There were things that I didn't agree with, and I've been voting here and living here and working here my entire life. I finally got to a place where I was like, I don't agree with this.'
Unlike Democrat-run California, Republican-run Nevada doesn't have a personal income tax.
Cain said: 'It's a big savings. So much of it made sense. I'm so happy. It's so much easier to travel places from Las Vegas than from LAX. It's incredible. It's the quietest place I've ever slept in my life.
'When I got here and saw traffic, I was like, 'What is this foreign substance? I don't like it anymore.' I don't deal with that at all. It's great.'
He added to Fox News: 'I love California. It's the most beautiful state. Everything’s wonderful about it except for the policies.
'The policies are just terrible. The fiscal policies, the soft-on-crime policies, the homelessness policies.'
Las Vegas' luxury property market is experiencing a resurgence as rich Californians swap their homes overlooking the Pacific Ocean for views of the mountainous Mojave Desert. Pictured is a home in Vegas' prestigious Summerlin neighborhood that sold for $5.25million this month
Rival to Summerlin, Henderson is a prestigious city south east of the Las Vegas strip but still part of the Vegas metro area. Pictured is a house in Henderson that sold this month for $6.7million
As a result of the rich crowds flocking to Vegas, the luxury property market has boomed.
Last year a record-breaking 2,000 luxury homes were sold in southern Nevada for an average price of $1.8million, according to a report by the Nevada State Bank.
Actor Mark Wahlberg also made the move across state lines in 2022, telling The Talk he had done it to give his four kids a 'better life'.
He said: 'I want to be able to work from home. I moved to California many years ago to pursue acting, and I’ve only made a couple of movies in the entire time that I was there.
'So, to be able to give my kids a better life and follow and pursue their dreams, whether it be my daughter as an equestrian, my son as a basketball player, my younger son as a golfer, this made a lot more sense for us.'
He reportedly sold his first Vegas home for $16.6million in September a year after buying it, but told People magazine: 'We just moved from one house to another... We moved into a temporary place and we now moved into another place.'
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Reno area has seen 25,000 new residents according to reports and is expected to be one of the fastest growing cities in the coming years.
Homebuyers are looking to leave expensive crime-ridden big cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco
California residents and businesses began moving to the northern Nevada region back in 2014 when Tesla started building a battery pack factory outside Reno.
The Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center has become the world's largest industrial center and covers 166 square miles.
The most popular place to move to ahead of Vegas is Sacramento - a much more affordable area of California than San Francisco and Los Angeles, making it perfect for people who want a cheaper place to live, but don't want to leave the state.
The typical home in Sacramento sells for $575,000, nearly a million dollars less than the typical home in San Francisco ($1,480,000), according to Redfin.
With a 7 percent mortgage rate, the monthly payment for the median-priced Sacramento home is $3,889, compared to $10,010 in San Francisco.
In the past few months, nearly a dozen prominent places have packed up and called it quits - as local leaders continue to take a somewhat lax approach to crime
Other headlines include the phrases 'garbage city, 'ruined city' and 'fallen city', as crippling drug issues and widespread homeless problems continue to cause problems for San Francisco
Alison Williams, a Redfin Premier agent in Sacramento, said: 'Most of them are moving not necessarily because they can’t afford the Bay Area, but because they want a bigger home and better quality of life.
'They’re searching for high-end homes with spacious yards where they can raise a family.'
The majority of people are moving to Sacramento from San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego.
It is an easy way for families to leave crime-ridden areas of San Francisco.
Crimes like robberies and homicides are on the rise in the city which stands to lose $200 million a year in revenue through its business exodus - which has seen major hotels and retailers flee the city center.
English (US)