$1M Home in Fort Worth vs. Denver vs. San Diego: Property Tax, Income Tax, and the Real Annual Cost on a $300K Income
You make $300K in San Diego County. A Fort Worth employer offers $300K flat. Texas has no income tax, so on paper you just gave yourself a raise of about $19,500 a year (that assumes a 6.5% effective California income tax rate, which is an example figure). Then you find a $1M home in a new golf community outside Fort Worth, and the property tax estimate comes in near $20,000.
Is the raise real? Let's model the full picture, side by side, with every assumption visible so you can swap in your own numbers.
What five luxury listings are good for (and what they aren't)
Five recent Realtor.com News stories put very different price tags in four different tax regimes:
- "Elon Musk Abruptly Splits From Shivon Zilis—Will She Move Out of His $35 Million Austin Compound?" The headline price is $35M in Texas.
- "Tiger Woods Spearheads Gated Golf Community in Texas with Luxury Homes Starting at $1M" is a 914-acre development outside Fort Worth, with homes starting at $1M.
- "Denver's Historic $10.75 Million 'Tom Shane' Estate" is a 10,000 sq ft Tudor Revival in Country Club, at $10.75M.
- "Ex-MLB Star James Shields Cuts Price on Modern Rancho Santa Fe Estate to $19.9M" is a California price cut to $19.9M.
- "Off-Grid Earthship Home Hits the Market for $625K in Wyoming" is built from 1,343 tires on 55 acres, with a 66-foot greenhouse.
None of these is likely your budget. They work as price anchors because the same tax rule applies at every price. Property tax scales with the home's value, and income tax scales with your paycheck. Which one hurts more depends on how big your house is relative to your income.
Step 1: The same $1M home under three tax systems
Here is a household earning $300K that buys a $1M home with 20% down. That means an $800K loan at an assumed 6.5% over 30 years, or about $5,057 a month ($60,680 a year) in principal and interest. Federal tax is the same everywhere, so I've left it out.
Assumptions (examples, not quotes): Fort Worth-area effective property tax of 2.0%, Denver 0.5%, San Diego County 1.15%. Colorado income tax is 4.4% of gross, and California's effective rate is 6.5% of gross. Check your actual rates on the county assessor's site. New Texas communities can also carry special-district levies, so ask for the full combined rate.
| Fort Worth area, TX | Denver, CO | San Diego County, CA | |
|---|---|---|---|
| State income tax on $300K | $0 | $13,200 | $19,500 |
| Property tax on $1M | $20,000 | $5,000 | $11,500 |
| Mortgage (P&I) | $60,680 | $60,680 | $60,680 |
| Income tax + property tax | $20,000 | $18,200 | $31,000 |
| Taxes + mortgage | $80,680 | $78,880 | $91,680 |
Three results stand out:
- Texas beats California by $11,000 a year at this income and home price. That's the $19,500 income tax saving minus the $8,500 property tax premium.
- Colorado beats Texas by $1,800. The "no income tax" state isn't the cheapest state here.
- Colorado's edge is slightly understated. I applied 4.4% to gross income, but the real bill is lower after deductions.
One thing the table leaves out is homeowners insurance, because it depends on the parcel's hazard (hail, wildfire, wind). It can swamp a few thousand dollars of tax difference. Our California fire insurance vs. Florida hurricane premium breakdown shows how to fold it in.
This is the kind of analysis Vontari runs for you, so you don't have to build the spreadsheet yourself.
A big caveat for current California owners: the table assumes you buy fresh in each state. If you've owned your California home for years, your assessed value rises by at most 2% a year. Your real bill may be far below 1.15% of today's market value. A Texas purchase resets you to full market value, and the comparison can flip against the move.
Step 2: The break-even income formula
Instead of asking "Which state is cheaper?", ask "At what income does the no-income-tax state stop winning?"
Break-even income = (property tax rate gap × home price) ÷ the other state's income tax rate
- Texas vs. Colorado on a $1M home: (2.0% − 0.5%) × $1,000,000 = $15,000. Divide by 4.4% and you get about $340,900. Below that income, Colorado costs less. Above it, Texas does.
- Texas vs. California on a $1M home: (2.0% − 1.15%) × $1,000,000 = $8,500. Divide by 6.5% and you get about $130,800. A household above that income comes out ahead in Texas.
Home price moves this number a lot:
| Home price | Texas vs. Colorado break-even income |
|---|---|
| $600K | about $204,500 |
| $1M | about $340,900 |
| $1.5M | about $511,400 |
The bigger the house relative to your paycheck, the weaker the "no income tax" argument gets. Our Denver vs. Dallas income tax and property tax comparison walks through the same trade-off at $120K.
Step 3: Property tax at the headline prices
Here are the five listing prices run at the same assumed effective rates. These are list prices, not assessed values, so treat this as a scale check.
| Listing | State | List price | Assumed rate | Annual property tax | Per month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austin compound | TX | $35M | 2.0% | $700,000 | $58,333 |
| Rancho Santa Fe estate | CA | $19.9M | 1.15% | $228,850 | $19,071 |
| Tom Shane estate | CO | $10.75M | 0.5% | $53,750 | $4,479 |
| Bluejack Ranch (entry) | TX | $1M | 2.0% | $20,000 | $1,667 |
| Wyoming Earthship | WY | $625K | 0.6% | $3,750 | $313 |
Two takeaways:
- At the top end, "no income tax" shifts the burden into the property tax bill. The assumed Texas bill on a $35M home is $700K a year. The Denver estate would take about 13 years to generate that much property tax at $53,750 a year.
- In California, the sale price sets your base, not the list price. Each $1M the final price falls saves a new buyer roughly $11,500 a year at the assumed rate. A price cut like the Rancho Santa Fe one matters as a negotiating signal, but your actual tax depends on what you pay at closing.
For size and quality, the Denver estate lists at about $1,075 per square foot ($10.75M ÷ 10,000). That's a useful reminder that a sticker price compares nothing until you divide by square footage and condition.
Step 4: The Wyoming Earthship, and how much "savings" is really just less house
Say you're a remote worker eyeing the $625K Earthship. A 20% down payment is $125K, leaving a $500K loan at 6.5%. That's $3,160 a month, or $37,920 a year. Property tax at the assumed 0.6% is $3,750. Wyoming has no income tax. Compared with the $1M Fort Worth scenario:
| Fort Worth home | Earthship | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mortgage (P&I) | $60,680 | $37,920 | $22,760 |
| Property tax | $20,000 | $3,750 | $16,250 |
| Total | $80,680 | $41,670 | $39,010 |
Only the $16,250 property tax gap comes from location. The other $22,760 comes from buying a smaller loan. Be careful crediting a state for savings you'd get by buying less house anywhere.
Three more cautions:
- Financing may not match this example. Lenders can be selective about unconventional off-grid homes, so get a lender's answer before you fall for the house.
- Remote pay may not match your current pay. Suppose your employer cuts location-based pay by 10%. That's a $30,000 pre-tax cut, or about $21,000 after taxes at an assumed 30% combined marginal rate. Your $39,010 gap shrinks to roughly $18,000, before well, septic, and long-drive costs.
- Off-grid isn't free. No electric bill is real, but equipment replacement and maintenance are still costs.
For the full remote-pay picture, see our $120K remote salary geo arbitrage math for Seattle, Denver, and Albuquerque.
You can model this for your specific situation at Vontari, including a pay-adjustment scenario for your employer.
Step 5: Adjusting for what a dollar actually buys
Tax is only part of the question. You also need to ask "Can I actually afford to live there on my salary?" Two public sources help:
- BEA Regional Price Parities (built partly from BLS price data) compare overall price levels across states and metros.
- BLS metro-area CPI releases show how prices are changing in the metros that BLS publishes.
The formula is: Equivalent salary = your current after-tax income × (new area's price index ÷ current area's price index)
Illustration with made-up index values: if Metro A has a price level of 105 and Metro B has 95, you'd need $110,500 in Metro A to match $100,000 in Metro B (105 ÷ 95 = 1.105). Pull current values from the sources above.
Metro indexes average across all households, mostly renters and mid-priced homes. A $1M buyer's real price level can differ from the average, which is why I model the specific home above rather than relying on a metro index alone. Our $120K Los Angeles vs. Austin salary equivalent analysis applies this method end to end.
Step 6: Transition costs and break-even
The $11,000 annual gap from Step 1 only matters after you pay to get there. Here is an illustrative San Diego-to-Fort Worth move:
| One-time cost (example) | Amount |
|---|---|
| Selling costs on an assumed $900K current home (6%) | $54,000 |
| Moving | $8,000 |
| Buy-side closing costs on the $1M home (assumed 2%) | $20,000 |
| Temporary housing and overlap | $5,000 |
| Total | $87,000 |
At $11,000 a year in tax savings, the payback is $87,000 ÷ $11,000 ≈ 7.9 years. Taxes alone rarely justify a move. The raise, the housing quality, the schools, and the lifestyle have to carry the rest. Our San Francisco to Austin moving cost and break-even breakdown shows how a relocation package changes the timeline.
Your checklist before you decide
- Get your real property tax rate from the county assessor (not a state average), including any district levies.
- Use your own income in the break-even formula. If you're below the break-even, the "no income tax" state may cost you more.
- Hold the house constant (size, age, hazard exposure) before comparing cities.
- Add insurance, HOA, and any special-assessment costs the tax table leaves out.
- Price the transition and divide by the true annual gain.
- If you're remote, ask HR whether your pay changes with location, in writing.
A comparison like this takes a spreadsheet and an afternoon the first time and much less after that. If you'd rather start with your own salary, home price, and state taxes already filled in, Vontari models the full relocation picture for your situation, so you can see the real annual number before you sign a lease or a listing agreement.
Sources
- Elon Musk Abruptly Splits From Shivon Zilis—Will She Move Out of His $35 Million Austin Compound? — Realtor.com News
- Tiger Woods Spearheads Gated Golf Community in Texas with Luxury Homes Starting at $1M — Realtor.com News
- Denver’s Historic $10.75 Million ‘Tom Shane’ Estate Hits the Market as City’s Second-Most Expensive Home — Realtor.com News
- Ex-MLB Star James Shields Cuts Price on Modern Rancho Santa Fe Estate to $19.9M — Realtor.com News
- Off-Grid Earthship Home Hits the Market for $625K in Wyoming — Realtor.com News