I lived in Ca for 30 years-13% state income tax-moved to Wa in 2017 0% state income tax. I could have bought a nice house in Wa with the capital gains tax I paid in Ca. Fortunately some were in a 1031x that I rolled into Wa properties with no tax!
In Ca if you held properties for a long time your property taxes became low compared to property values due to appreciation.
I thought my happiest day was when I moved to Ca-wrong; second happiest. Happiest was when I left in 2017. It was a wonderful place to live and raise a family, but also a great place to leave! LOL
Where you live is important as well as where you invest. Some states, like CA charge taxes on the income earned in CA even if you do not live in CA.
So I live in TN now, but sold an inherited house in CA. I had to file state taxes in CA as a non-resident so show that I did not earn anything from the house I sold. Otherwise I would have had to pay CA taxes on any profit.
So, even though TN does not have state taxes, except for limited taxes on things like stocks/bonds/private interest, if I would have made a profit in CA it would have been taxed by CA as CA taxes income when it is sourced from CA.
And CA is aggressive and even go after professional sports people for the % of their salary based on the games/tournaments played in CA.
Are there other states that tax non-residents for source income/profit?
Oh, and when CA taxes are a low percentage of the assessed value of the home, that is only because the person has owned the home for a while. Prop 13 only allows the assessor to increase the value of the house at 2% a year, and the value of the houses generally go up way more than 2% a year. So when the house is sold and the property is assessed at its true value the taxes again are very high based on the value of the house.
As an example, the house I just sold was owned by my relative since the 70s, taxed at $745, including the bonds, etc. that are added on for the year. Seeing that bill, one would say CA property taxes are very low. The supplemental bill was over $7000! Yeah Prop 13!