Californians flee to Nevada to escape

Real estate agents on Lake Tahoe’s Nevada side say they’re making sales to Californians trying to escape to Nevada after recent tax hikes in California.

In November, Californians approved Proposition 30, which raises taxes on earnings over $250,000 for seven years. Nevada has no state income tax.

George Ashley of the Nevada accounting firm Ashley Quinn said his company has “had at least 100 serious inquiries” from Californians interested in moving to the Nevada side since the passage of Proposition 30, including people with “large liquidity events” like the sale of a company or a lot of stock.

Twelve of them have made the move, he said.

Craig Zager of Coldwell Banker Select in Zephyr Cove, said he has represented 38 buyers this year for Nevada side homes, almost all of them, he said, Californians moving because of Proposition 30.

“They’re coming from all over California: Alamo, San Jose, San Diego, Newport Beach,” he said.

A 2010 Stanford University study found little impact on millionaire migration from a 2005 mental health services tax on incomes over $1 million. But the passage in November of Proposition 30 seems to have been a turning point for some wealthy folks.

Source: San Jose Mercury News