Moving to Houston from California or New York

The price per square foot is the first thing coastal buyers notice, and the property tax bill is the second. Houston trades a state income tax of zero for property taxes near 2.1 percent of value before exemptions, homeowners insurance that is two to three times the California or New York average, and a car-first layout. This page puts the numbers side by side with sources, explains the homestead exemption you will file, and covers the hurricane and flood basics that are new to most arrivals.

Price per square foot: Houston against the coasts

Realtor.com's median listing price per square foot for September 2026, published through the St. Louis Fed's FRED database, is the cleanest apples-to-apples figure across counties.

At $162 a foot, a $500,000 listing budget covers about 3,000 square feet in Harris County; at $620 it covers about 800 in Los Angeles County and at $1,499 about 330 in Manhattan. The Houston Association of Realtors' September 2026 single-family median was $325,000, with 40,192 active listings and 5.5 months of inventory. Prices inside Loop 610 run far above the metro median: our 12-month MLS figures put the typical sale near $681,000 in the Houston Heights, $658,000 in Montrose and about $2.5 million in River Oaks, while Katy ran near $346,000 and Cypress near $406,000.

Income tax versus property tax

Texas is one of eight states with no individual income tax. California's top marginal rate is 13.3 percent on taxable income above $1 million, a figure that includes the 1 percent mental health services tax; New York State's reaches 10.9 percent, and New York City residents pay a city income tax on top. The trade is property tax. The Tax Foundation's effective rate on owner-occupied housing for 2024 was 1.40 percent in Texas against 0.70 percent in California and 1.30 percent in New York, and the county detail is where the contrast sharpens.

Effective rates are what owners actually paid after exemptions and, in California, after Proposition 13 assessment limits. The sticker rate on a Houston purchase is higher: inside the City of Houston and Houston ISD the 2026 rates add up to about $2.13 per $100 of appraised value, so a $500,000 home is taxed on its full price in year one, roughly $10,660 a year before exemptions and about $7,450 once the homestead exemption is applied. A new California buyer pays a little over 1 percent of the purchase price under Proposition 13; a Westchester or Long Island buyer is already used to bills above $10,000. The itemized stack is on What It Costs to Own a Home in Houston.

The no-income-tax caveat: property tax and insurance are higher

A move from a high-tax state usually saves money overall, but not line by line, and the carrying costs on the house are the lines that go up. Insurance.com's 2026 averages for $300,000 of dwelling coverage are $4,582 in Texas, $1,653 in California and $1,844 in New York, against a national $2,872; Insurify's October 2026 Houston figure is $6,084. Most of our buyers land between $3,000 and $6,000 a year depending on roof age, value and deductibles. Flood insurance is a separate policy that runs roughly $800 to $1,300 a year for a typical Harris County NFIP policy and more in high-risk zones. Put together, a $500,000 Houston home with a homestead exemption carries about $7,450 in property tax, $4,000 to $6,000 in homeowners insurance and, if you buy it, $800 to $1,300 in flood coverage: roughly $12,000 to $14,800 a year before the mortgage. Weigh that against the income tax you stop paying and the price you no longer pay per square foot, and the comparison usually still favors Houston, but it is a smaller margin than the headline suggests. Electricity, by contrast, is cheaper: 15.91 cents per kilowatt-hour in Texas against 18.16 nationally in August 2026, and you choose your own retail provider.

Filing the Texas homestead exemption

There is no equivalent in California or New York to how much this one form matters. Texas school districts must exempt $140,000 of a primary residence's value, Houston ISD, the City of Houston and the Harris County entities each take a further 20 percent off their portion, and owners 65 or older or with a qualifying disability get another $60,000 off school taxes plus a school tax ceiling. Once the exemption is in place, your appraised value can rise no more than 10 percent a year, beginning the January after the first year you qualify.

1. Close on the home and move in as your primary residence. Update your Texas driver's license to the new address; the appraisal district matches the two.
2. File the residence homestead application (Comptroller Form 50-114) with the county appraisal district, in Harris County online at HCAD. There is no charge, and no service needs to be paid to do it for you.
3. File as soon as you own and occupy the home. You can receive the exemption for the portion of the year you own it, the general deadline is before May 1 of the following year, and a late application is accepted up to two years after the delinquency date, with a refund of the overpaid tax.
4. Tell your lender once the county applies it so the escrow payment drops, and protest the appraised value each spring if it comes in high.

Our step-by-step guide: how to file the Texas homestead exemption.

Hurricane and flood insurance basics

• The season. The Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30 and peaks around September 10. Houston sits about 50 miles inland from Galveston Bay, so wind and heavy rain are the exposures, and the rain arrives with ordinary storms too.
• Wind and hail are in the homeowners policy, with a catch. Most Houston policies carry a separate wind and hail deductible of 1 to 2 percent of the dwelling coverage, so compare that deductible along with the premium. Closer to the coast, wind coverage may come from the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association rather than a standard carrier.
• Flood is never in the homeowners policy. Flood coverage comes from the National Flood Insurance Program or a private insurer. Lenders require it in FEMA special flood hazard areas such as Zone A or AE. Outside those zones it is optional, but the Harris County Flood Control District counted 154,170 homes flooded by Harvey in 2017, just under half of them outside the mapped 100-year and 500-year floodplains, so many owners carry it anyway. Typical Harris County NFIP premiums run roughly $800 to $1,300 a year, lower in preferred-risk zones and several thousand in high-risk zones.
• The disclosure helps you. Texas Property Code Section 5.008 requires sellers to state whether the home is in a 100-year or 500-year floodplain, a floodway, a flood pool or a reservoir, whether it has flooded or taken water from a reservoir release, and whether flood insurance is in place. If the notice arrives late, you may terminate within seven days of receiving it.
• Buy during the option period. Get homeowners and flood quotes while you can still walk away, and plan on the flood policy being in force at closing; NFIP policies bought outside a closing typically carry a 30-day waiting period.

Our map guide: Houston flood zones and flood insurance.

The car-first layout

Walk Score rates Houston 47, car-dependent, with a Transit Score of 36 and a Bike Score of 49. In the City of Houston's 2020 to 2024 Census tabulation, about 68 percent of workers drove alone, 3 percent took the bus, under 1 percent rode rail and 13 percent worked from home; the metro's mean commute is 31.1 minutes. There are walkable pockets, and they are where most coastal arrivals start looking: Montrose and Midtown score 86, the Museum District 74 and the Greater Heights 73. METRORail's light-rail lines link the Northline area, Downtown, Midtown, the Museum District, the Medical Center and NRG Park, with branches east through EaDo to the University of Houston. For everything else, plan on two cars or one car plus a short commute, and test the drive at the hour you would make it. The job-center matching is on Houston Neighborhoods by Commute.

Where coastal movers tend to look

• For walkable streets and older housing: Montrose, the Houston Heights, Midtown, the Museum District, Rice Military and EaDo. Heights historic-district lots are typically 50 by 132 feet, about 6,600 square feet, which is more yard than most Los Angeles or Brooklyn blocks.
• For space and newer construction: Katy, Cypress, Sugar Land, Pearland and The Woodlands, usually with an HOA and a MUD tax, and 17 to 33 miles from Downtown.
• For a middle ground: Bellaire, West University Place, Memorial and Spring Branch: larger lots than the Inner Loop, 3 to 12 miles from the Galleria and the Medical Center.

Questions California and New York movers ask

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Call or text (832) 777-3904. We speak English and Spanish, and we have guided more than 1,000 Houston-area purchases and sales in 15 years.

Updated October 29, 2026.