If you move to Puerto Rico and quality for Act 20 or 22 then you end up paying almost no Federal income tax as well.

https://www.sovereignman.com/tax/how-you-can-move-to-puerto-...

The nice thing about Texas is you get the double whammy of a zero personal income tax AND a very wealthy state (extremely well funded public uni system, largest sovereign wealth fund of any state). It's also very culturally vibrant and is part of the country's third coast, for better and worse in terms of hurricanes. I think there used to be more cheap large plots of land available but that may be a bit harder to find these days. The missus and I are considering moving there eventually, some of my college friends who have been living there for a long time seem really happy.

I absolutely do NOT recommend Miami if you indeed want your money to go far. Try Tampa or Space Coast instead.

edit to add this: Miami is certainly a nice place to visit, but not to live.

What's wrong with miami? Looks overall cheaper than anything on the west coast to me. Loved it all the times I've been, but the only things putting me off are the rising water table and hurricanes. My buddy living down there has had some serious flood damage to his home a few years back. I guess you could build on the second story with parking underneath like they do here in the west and buy another century of rising sea levels or so, but I didn't see any homes that looked like that so I guess zoning is probably some nonsense.

The times you’ve been there, did you make the rounds at popular touristy places? Rent at those places are extremely high, $3000+ for a 2 bed in heart of Brickell. If you move in lands away from touristy place it’s not that impressive. Home insurance is high because of hurricane / flooding risks.

Like I said, not a good place if you want your money to go far. Plenty of things to like about it if you visit, like the food, the pretty scenery at popular places.

From the looks of zillow I'm seeing houses in north beach and the islands in the biscayne bay for roughly 300-400k cheaper than a comparable house in LA, sometimes way cheaper. I mean look at this deal right on Normandy Isle:

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1340-Marseille-Dr-Miami-B...

That place is $1m cheaper than the same number of bedrooms and similar square footage in LA, where you have at least 30 minutes of traffic separating you from the waterfront:

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1633-S-Shenandoah-St-Los-...

Maybe if your perspective is other parts of Florida or the South, then yeah there is some sticker shock, but compared to CA, miami is a steal for how lively of a city and truly connected to the water it is imo. When we would visit my friends we would spend so much time hanging out at sand bars, riding the jetskis to restaurants, seeing so much wildlife and nature along the way. So many people just have a boat or some jetskis docked near their property. It's night and day different than how the waterfront is managed anywhere in CA, where inlets are used for storm water alone rather than recreation and the beach might be separated from the city by a highway (in the case of malibu or santa monica), or proximal to a refinery or some other piece of heavy industry (like in Manhattan beach where people pay millions to have a waterfront view of the shit plant in el segundo).

It's sinking

Tampa is just outstanding. 7 years in and I have nothing but good things to say.