The Great Migration: Californians Ditch West Coast Blue for Texas Red

It’s about a lot more than just politics.

Trading the Golden State for the Lone Star State? A new migration study says many Californians are doing exactly that, though they aren’t alone. The draw to Texas, researchers say, is simple: more house for the money, plentiful jobs, and no state income tax. But the story is more complex than swapping palm trees for prairie grass.

Texas or Bust

The “2025 Texas Migration Report” by Hire A Helper analyzed more than 18 million moves nationwide and found that 265,112 people moved to Texas from other states over the last year. That’s about 726 people relocating to the Lone Star State a day! California accounted for more than 14% of inbound moves from another state, according to the report. Dallas–Fort Worth, Houston, and Austin were the top destinations.

Housing Costs

Let’s talk cost of living, because that’s the headliner for most movers. California’s statewide median single-family home price hovered around $899,140 in August 2025, according to the California Association of Realtors. Texas, by contrast, sat near the mid-$330,000s statewide this year. That still isn’t pocket change, but neither is the difference between the two – it’s the kind of gap that decides zip codes.

Rents tell a similar story. California consistently ranks among the most expensive rental states. Texas rates, however, have been cooling. RentCafe.com examined the cost of living between the two states and found that the average rent in California was $2,634 compared to $1,454 in Texas.

Taxes

Taxes add another layer, and for many movers, it’s one of the most immediate ways they feel the difference. California has nine income-tax brackets, starting at 1% for the lowest earners and rising to 12.3% for incomes over $677,275 for single filers, according to the California Franchise Tax Board. In addition, Californians with incomes above $1 million pay an extra 1% mental-health surcharge, bringing the top effective rate to 13.3%, the highest in the nation.

Texas, on the other hand, doesn’t have a state income tax, so residents don’t pay on their wages, salaries, or investment incomes. To demonstrate the difference, a person making $100,000 a year would pay around $4,400 to $6,000 in state income tax in California while Texans pay $0. That translates to taking home up to $500 more each month – quite an incentive to relocate.

Who’s Taking the Moving Plunge?

So, who exactly is moving? The Hire A Helper report says Gen X and millennials make up “three out of every four new arrivals,” and most newcomers fall in the middle-and upper-middle-income ranges. In short, working-age adults in their prime earning and child-rearing years are leading the shift.

Now to the political question everyone asks: Are these Californians turning Texas blue? The Houston Chronicle’s 2024 analysis of voter files concluded that, in most Texas counties with high shares of California transplants, “the blend of new Republican and new Democratic voters was more red than blue,” with Travis County (Austin) as the notable exception. Political scientist James Gimpel told the Chronicle: “California alone isn’t sending enough people favoring just a single party to make the kind of dent that the popular narrative would suggest.” In other words, newcomers aren’t reshaping Texas politics as dramatically as some suspect.

Call it a modern gold rush in reverse. Instead of chasing dreams out west, today’s fortune-seekers are heading east. In the end, the great California-to-Texas migration isn’t just about escaping high prices or chasing lower taxes. It’s a story about how Americans keep voting with their feet. Whether they’re drawn by bigger homes, better paychecks, or a different political climate, one thing is certain: Texas is open for business, and Californians keep showing up with the moving trucks to prove it.