Moving from San Diego to Las Vegas

California’s top marginal income-tax rate is 13.3%. That’s the 12.3% top bracket plus the 1% Behavioral Health Services Tax on taxable income over $1 million, and that $1 million threshold isn’t doubled for couples filing jointly. The top rate doesn’t hit every dollar. California does tax capital gains as ordinary income, though, so there’s no lower rate when you sell (FTB rate schedules, 2026 estimated-tax guidance, capital gains).

Nevada has no personal income tax at all, and because the ban is written into its constitution, undoing it would take an amendment and a statewide vote. Businesses still pay Nevada taxes.

Where it gets personal is what happens after you genuinely change residency:

The FTB has more on each: nonresident income, equity compensation, selling after a move and retirement income.

One more line on your pay stub: California SDI withholding is 1.3% of covered wages in 2026, with no wage cap (EDD rates). Whether it applies depends on where and how you work, so have payroll look at your new arrangement (multistate employment rules).

Don’t count estate tax in the savings, either: neither California nor Nevada has its own estate tax right now (California, Nevada).

A Nevada house and driver’s license help show that you’ve moved. On their own, they don’t end California residency. California looks at where your life is centered: your home, your family, your work, your time and your other connections. There’s no universal 183-day rule that gets you out (FTB residency guidance).

You can keep real ties to San Diego. Just tell your adviser the whole picture: a home you’re keeping, a spouse moving later, an office you still use, regular trips back. Keep good records of your travel and workdays as things change. The year you move may mean a part-year California return, and California-source income can continue after that (FTB filing guidance).

What you want is a plan that matches how you’ll actually live. Once the money side is clear, I’ll build the house search around your timing and priorities.

Keeping a place in San Diego might be exactly right for you. It also means carrying two homes and thinking about how that house fits your residency picture. Renting it out adds landlord work and California-source rental income. And if you sell it after you’ve moved, any taxable gain is still California income (FTB property-income guidance).

The federal main-home exclusion covers up to $250,000 of gain, or $500,000 for qualifying joint filers. You generally have to have owned and lived in the house for two of the five years before the sale, so if you’ve lived there at least two years, you have up to three years after moving out to sell and still qualify. Depreciation from renting it out is taxed either way, and spouse rules or another recent exclusion can change the answer, so have the dates checked before you turn it into a long-term rental (IRS home-sale rules, rental and depreciation details).

And your Proposition 13 assessment stays in California. Proposition 19’s replacement-home transfers only work within California, so that tax basis can’t come with you (California BOE). Compare the actual bills before you decide what to keep.

In Clark County, assessed value is 35% of taxable value. Taxable value generally combines the land value with the cost of replacing the house, minus depreciation, so it isn’t simply what you paid. Then the tax rate for that parcel’s district applies (Clark County assessment information, how assessments and rates work).

For example: $1 million of taxable value gives you $350,000 of assessed value. At one Clark County district’s FY 2026–27 rate of $2.5017 per $100, that comes to about $8,756 before any abatement or exemption.

The 3% cap on a primary home limits how fast a qualifying tax bill can grow, not what the house is worth. Confirm the parcel’s cap status after you buy; new construction and changes in use are treated differently, and a new home’s land-only bill isn’t what you’ll pay once it’s built (Clark County abatement rules). The comparison that matters is your San Diego bill next to a real estimate for a specific Nevada house, and I’ll help you get one.

A pool is a lot more fun when its upkeep is already in the budget. Look past the mortgage and tax bill to insurance, master and neighborhood HOA dues, any club membership, cooling, pool service, landscaping and maintenance.

For the homes you’re serious about, ask for utility history and get an insurance quote for that address. Just make sure that history matches how you’d live there; a winter home that sat empty most of the year tells you nothing about running every AC zone through July. Ask about solar contracts, the pool equipment and the age of the HVAC too.

If you’ll be back in San Diego often, budget for the travel and for someone to keep an eye on the house while you’re gone. Pricing all of this properly for every house takes work, which is one reason I keep the shortlist short.

A less expensive house can still need a different kind of loan. The 2026 one-unit conforming-loan limit is $1,104,000 in San Diego County and $832,750 in Clark County (FHFA county limits). Those are loan amounts, not price limits.

Say you buy a $1.2 million house with 20% down. That’s a $960,000 loan: under San Diego’s limit, over Clark County’s. So talk to your lender about jumbo financing before we tour, including what they’ll need if your income comes from investments, a business or retirement.

If you’re paying cash, decide how much you want left in the bank afterward and when the San Diego sale money will actually land. Once the money’s sorted, let’s talk about your week.

I won’t pretend the weather is an upgrade from the coast. Here’s the comparison that sticks: a normal July night in Las Vegas is warmer than a normal July afternoon in San Diego. At the airports, July’s average high and low are 104.5°F and 82°F here, against 75.3°F and 66.1°F in San Diego, and we average about 78 days a year at 100°F or more.

Winter is cooler, too. January’s average high is 58.5°F here and 66.4°F in San Diego. Those are NOAA’s 1991–2020 airport normals, and San Diego’s airport sits on the bay. If you live inland, in Escondido or Poway, your summers already run hotter than the coast, so the jump is a little smaller.

What changes is when you’re outdoors. In summer, you head out early, before the heat builds, and save the pool for late afternoon. In spring and fall, outdoor dinners and golf take over more of the day, and those seasons are beautiful here. Which way a covered patio faces can matter more than how big it is, so if you can, visit once when it’s hot and see how the patio feels at 4 p.m.

Red Rock Canyon has trails and its Scenic Drive, which needs a timed-entry reservation in its busy season. Pick the right trail for the season and you can hike in the morning and be home for lunch.

For a mountain day, Lee Canyon has summer and fall hiking, scenic chairlift rides and mountain biking, plus skiing and snowboarding in winter. The Spring Mountains Visitor Gateway adds more trails and programs. Check the snow, the lifts and the road before you go.

You don’t have to join a club to play. TPC Las Vegas is a public course with tee times, rentals and lessons, so you can play there for a season while you decide whether a private club belongs in your week. Membership is a separate question from buying a golf-course home.

If you’ll miss being on the water, Lake Mead’s marinas rent boats; check the marina and conditions first. Farther out, Valley of Fire, Zion and Death Valley make great day or weekend trips. Let the season pick for you: Death Valley in summer and Death Valley in winter are two very different ideas.

Start with the places you’d go every week. Fine Company in Downtown Summerlin does breakfast, lunch and dinner. In Henderson, The District at Green Valley Ranch has restaurants like Echo & Rig and Flower Child. Have a neighborhood meal when you visit and see how the area feels outside of a house tour.

Then there are the nights worth planning around. The Smith Center has Broadway tours, concerts and dance, and it’s home to the Las Vegas Philharmonic and Nevada Ballet Theatre. A concert or show at Sphere turns a night near the Strip into an occasion.

For sports, there’s Raiders football at Allegiant Stadium, Golden Knights hockey at T-Mobile Arena and Aces basketball at Michelob ULTRA Arena. Check the calendar, and remember you’ll be driving home afterward. A concert a few times a year and dinner every week deserve different weight when you’re choosing where to live.

This part’s easy. Family visits, friendships and your favorite stretch of beach can all stay on the calendar. San Diego and Las Vegas are both on Pacific time and change for daylight saving on the same days, so calling home never involves math.

Southwest flies nonstop SAN–LAS and puts the average flight at 1 hour 28 minutes. Add the drive to each airport, and check the days and return times you’d really use before you plan on popping back every other weekend. Or just drive it: about 330 miles up I-15, roughly five hours without traffic.

If you already fly privately, ask your operator about Henderson Executive Airport, including the special reservations it can require during big events.

Talk to your doctors and your insurer early. Figure out which San Diego relationships can continue, who’ll take care of you locally and how your exact plan covers both.

If school is part of the move, start with your child and the program, not the neighborhood name. Private-school admissions and public-school assignment are separate checks. Confirm the start year, openings and the drive to school while the shortlist is still flexible (CCSD enrollment and zoning).

Water shapes how you choose a yard, not just how you keep it. You’ll notice that newer neighborhoods have very few lawns. Desert landscaping is the norm, and done well, it’s beautiful. For your house, focus on the landscaping, irrigation and pool you actually want to look after, then check the property’s rules and its water use.

Your neighborhood now is a great way to tell me what matters to you. It shouldn’t decide where you live next. If one of these sounds like you, it’s a good place to start, and then the houses themselves will reshape the list.

Summerlin is a collection of villages with different kinds of homes and different daily drives. The developer’s village guide is a good way to get oriented, but where a particular house sits tells you far more about convenience.

The Ridges has custom-home neighborhoods, condominiums and a residents’ club, Club Ridges. Tournament Hills is a custom-home enclave in Hills South, next to TPC Summerlin. Compare floor plans, outdoor privacy and what needs updating, not just the view.

Red Rock Country Club, in Summerlin, sells separate golf, sports and social memberships.

Nearby Queensridge has both houses and towers. If a home looks out over the former Badlands course, check what’s planned there: the city’s settlement includes new housing on that land.

See homes in Summerlin.

Henderson is its own city, with several very different places to explore. At MacDonald Highlands, weigh the view against the driveway, the outdoor space and how much afternoon sun the house takes. Membership at DragonRidge, the golf club there, is separate from owning a home. Ascaya is another hillside community, with a residents’ clubhouse, pool and sports courts.

Seven Hills has different sections and gate setups, so it helps to narrow to the specific subdivision. Anthem Country Club is another golf community, and its club offers golf and social memberships to residents and nonresidents.

Lake Las Vegas changes the setting again, with different shores and kinds of homes around the water. Reflection Bay takes tee times, while SouthShore’s golf is private. Compare the specific home, your lake access and the memberships, then try the drives to the places you’d go.

See homes in Henderson.

Southern Highlands is a master plan with several residential sections, some of them custom-home enclaves. The whole area isn’t one gated community, so drive the specific entrance and the streets around it, and ask separately about golf-club access.

In the southwest, Spanish Trail has both townhome and single-family sections. It’s worth a look if you want a golf-community setting with less house to maintain, and its club has golf and social memberships.

Drive the routes that matter to you, including the airport if you’ll be flying to San Diego often. The south side looks close to everything on a map; the drive is what tells you.

See homes in Southern Highlands.

Look for the things that would make an ordinary day better: single-level living, a casita for guests, a garage that fits your cars and your stuff, or a shaded table by the pool. Check the west-facing glass, how much of the yard you can really use, the desert landscaping and what you see over the back wall.

A big backyard isn’t worth much if there’s nowhere comfortable to sit on a summer afternoon. Walk the rooms and the yard in the order you’d use them. For an attached home, find out what the association handles and how guests or long trips away would work.

Real homes and recent sales on the streets you’re drawn to will make the budget concrete. The full neighborhood guide has more ideas, and I’ll help you turn your favorites into a manageable shortlist.

Tell me what you love about your San Diego home and what you’d change. Maybe you want the same room for entertaining with less upkeep, a quieter place to work, or a guest suite that makes it easy for California friends to visit. A few real preferences give the search a direction, even if every community name here is new to you.

Tell me the practical things too: your price range, how comfortable you are with ongoing costs, roughly when you want to move and whether buying depends on selling in San Diego. Mention the deal-breakers that could knock out an otherwise lovely house, like stairs, a small garage, a neighbor’s windows looking into the yard or nowhere to sit in the shade. Keep those separate from the things you’d enjoy but could live without.

Then I take the long list down to a shortlist before you spend a weekend on it. If two of you are deciding, tell me both sets of priorities early.

A photo can tell you a room is pretty. It’s not much help with where you walk in, what’s just outside the frame or how that room connects to the rest of the house. That’s what video is for, and I’ll shoot as much of it as you want while you’re still in San Diego.

On our calls, we’ll pick which homes deserve a closer look and what to film. If privacy is the big thing, I’ll show you what the neighbors’ windows look onto, not just the view from yours. If family visits are the whole point of the move, we’ll spend the time on the guest rooms and the shared spaces. I’ll tell you what I notice; you decide how much each thing matters to you.

When the shortlist is ready, you fly in for a weekend and I do the driving. We go to every house on the list together, and between stops you’ll see the neighborhoods and the drives you’d be making every week. Ask me anything on the way.

Save some time between showings for lunch in an area you like, or a drive to wherever your week would take you: the doctor, the gym, the airport. If a school, a specialist or a club matters, set up that meeting before the trip so it can inform the decision.

Inside each house, play out an ordinary day: a work call while friends from home are staying, where the golf clubs and the cooler live, which corner of the patio still has shade late in the afternoon. That’s often what separates two houses that looked equally good online.

Some people like a second, shorter trip to see the finalists again or settle one big question. That’s easy to plan. Whether you make an offer that weekend or go home and sleep on it, you’ll know far more than you did on Friday.

You can do the whole thing from San Diego. I’ll keep filming until you’ve seen enough, and I’ll tell you honestly what I think of each house. Tell me which questions you’re happy to settle by video and which would make you want to see a house in person. How much uncertainty you’re okay with is part of the decision, just like the floor plan.

Keep an independent inspection and a careful document review in the plan. My video helps you understand the house; the inspection looks at its condition. The CFPB suggests booking an independent inspection early so there’s time to understand the findings and get any extra checks. Decide ahead of time how you’ll get the report and talk to the inspector if you can’t be there.

Before you commit, I’ll make sure you know what’s still open, and later we’ll set up the final walkthrough and signing with your lender and escrow.

You already know the numbers: 14 years full time and more than 650 transactions. What matters more when you’re buying from San Diego is that I answer my own phone, and I usually reply within minutes, or a few hours on a busy day. Whoever you hire, find out who’ll show you the homes and who picks up when you call from San Diego. With me, it’s me both times.

Get in touch whenever you’re ready, even if it’s just to ask a question.

I’ll map out the financing, inspection and document deadlines with you, your lender and escrow, along with title, insurance, any HOA review and the sale of your San Diego home if you’re selling. New construction comes with its own disclosures and completion terms. If you’re buying through a trust, work out early with your advisers and escrow how the trust will hold title and who signs.

Check with your lender and the title company how signing from San Diego will work, rather than assuming every document can be done online. Lock in the final walkthrough, insurance start date and access before you book a delivery you can’t move.

For the money, save a trusted escrow contact’s number early and use it to confirm wire instructions before you send anything. If an email shows up with new bank details, that’s your cue to call the saved number. It’s the habit the CFPB’s closing-fraud checklist recommends.

Compare written moving estimates for the same inventory and services. Find out both who you’re booking with and which carrier will actually have your things, and check their registration and complaints in the FMCSA mover search. A broker arranges the move but doesn’t necessarily do it.

Confirm the delivery window, gate or loading access, storage if the house isn’t ready and who handles changes. Pick your valuation coverage on purpose: Released Value generally limits an interstate mover’s liability to 60 cents per pound per item, and Full Value Protection has its own terms and limits. “We’re insured” doesn’t tell you what a loss would pay.

Set up utilities, working AC and internet at the new address, and have a backup plan for the first night in case the keys or the truck run late.

Carry your IDs, medication, important records, chargers and a few days of clothes with you. Art, wine and special cars each need a shipping plan, and pets need a travel plan (details below). Set aside a cool, secure room for pets while the movers unload.

When the truck arrives, check everything against the inventory and write down any damage right away. Keep the moving and purchase paperwork somewhere easy to reach. That way your first job is finding the coffee mugs, not digging through boxes for a document you need tomorrow.

Let the California DMV know within 10 days of moving. Nevada generally wants you to get a driver’s license within 30 days of becoming a resident. For cars you own and drive here, registration is due within 30 days or when you get the Nevada license, whichever comes first, with some exceptions. The new-resident checklist helps you line up Nevada insurance and any inspections.

Update your employer, banks, insurers, advisers and any agencies directly, and keep a record of the move and your trips back to California. Then save some energy for the good part: the walk that becomes your regular one and a first trip back to San Diego that feels like a visit.