Denver, on the other hand, has already “arrived” in my mind, as anyone I know who had any inkling of outdoor adventureness in them ended up there 10 years ago, the traffic is/has been a mess for years, and the ski slopes are way too crowded.

Edit: to be clear, price for me was really the main reason to move away from SF and not to move for example to NYC. If there had been city similarly vibrant and interesting, large city as NYC or SF that is affordable I'd have chosen that in a heart beat over Portland.

I could say a lot more, but am not sure what you'd be interested in.

Otherwise ... No one occupies the high moral ground. Every newcomer, no matter how far back, changed forever what was there.

Edit: when I lived in San Diego in the seventies, it was all but impossible to get a permit for a new water hookup, effectively banning new homes and therefore new people. Your wife could start with that.

And the native Americans changed the land when they arrived.

And they were always leaving off the last syllables of words. But mainly property prices.

You say that as if it is not.

I get it, I grew up in a small town and this feels like straight townie-ism to me.

Portland people who hate CA transplants have the same mindset as SF people who hate "techies" who have the same mindset as Red Americans who hate immigrants. There are always some cultural differences people point to (they are raising prices!/taking jobs!/crappy people!/more traffic!) but it is really just a form of territorial pissing that dumps negativity on individuals for societal shifts.

Ultimately people demand basic services which have to be paid for. Eliminating one source of funding may reduce the overall burden but more likely simply shifts funding.

Sales tax in many states is between 5-10 percent; the UK VAT is 20%. The top income tax bracket in the UK is a bit higher (45%) than in the US (37%) and the National Insurance Contributions are often larger than FICA (etc). The UK also has (e.g.) a TV tax, which the US doesn't.

we don't have to pay some one to do our taxes either.

Considering it's 100% complaining about taxes and has zero analysis, yeah.

That is absolutely not how income taxes work. If you live in California and earn $100k, your tax liability would be around $6k before any exemptions or deductions.

These things can easily be looked up, FYI.

So your definition of "successful professional" isn't quite the proverbial 1%, but it's close enough for government work.

In my experience, talking to many many people considering moving to or from CA, the delta in salary coming to CA dwarfs any differences in income tax.

Washington has no income tax.

We do have stupid regressive sales taxes.

and taxes on sugary beverages that don't include milk based beverages because Starbucks.

"These things can easily be looked up, FYI. "

Sorry what? Yes, you could have.

Property taxes are quite high in Texas for example: https://www.kut.org/post/heres-why-property-taxes-are-higher...

Other states with no income taxes have highly regressive sales taxes: https://www.accuratetax.com/blog/regressive-sales-tax-infogr...

But but you can give yourself a loan out of company? Nope withholding tax due on that!

Ok what about expensing everything? Don't do it, Revenue will nail you as you are guilty until you prove yourself innocent in their eyes.

Now I-85/985, I-20, and every highway between them is littered with tiny Atlantas at every exit for 50+ miles. Every former bedroom community is turning into its own little city. At least some of them are trying to manage it in a way that leaves them better off once the exodus ends and flips back around.

People seem to have decided 50 miles is enough, so the escapist development has turned to the west and north sides.

Isn't that a good thing, if you want people to have everything they need in their own neighborhood, rather than needing to commute 20 miles for a Costco and another 10 miles for a latte?

I'd rather have smaller (potentially walkable) communities than rows and rows of suburban housing where people just get in their car to drive elsewhere when they need to do something.

Highly recommend Alexander's "A Pattern Language." I just did an insanely massive purge, and this is one of the few books I kept.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Pattern_Language

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_design_pattern

Boise will have some growth pains, but it will have to really screw up to become California.

Agree completely. Many workers are moving from LA or Chicago to Phoenix, which is far from a small city, but is less expensive.

Analysis done during boom periods (low unemployment, high stock market) is worthless. During the dot com, housing and crypto bubbles, there were many trends of people doing X.

As Buffett says, "It's only when the tide goes down, you'll see who is swimming naked".

Real trends survive recessions and market busts. Take everything else with a grain of salt

LA Metro area: about 13 million

Austin: about 1 million.

It may not be as large presently as those other places, but they're seeing higher growth rates. So it's reasonable to compare them in this report.

Maybe?

But how many clicks would that get?

It's just about money. You can have an absurdly well paying job in Seattle and it really doesn't matter because you still can't afford a house. You can pay absurd amounts for a small condo. You can have a god awful commute. Or you can move 3 hours south and your money goes further while you still get the appealing parts of living in a city.