I work mostly in the IT sector and have seen a number of ex-coworkers (from previous jobs) move out of CA recently. What enabled them to do so was COVID-19 & their employer offering them full time remote work option. The locations where they moved to are:
* Bend Oregon
* Vancouver Washington (not Canada)
* Spokane Washington
* San Antonio Texas
* Las Vegas area, Nevada
If I'm not mistaken only Oregon on the list has State income tax. Although housing prices has risen quite a bit in those cities, coming from California the houses look affordable. Note that only 1 went to Texas, I think they are buying a house in NE area of San Antonio.
Personally, I liked Alaska better than Texas, but I wasn't in Alaska during dark winter months.
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Commenting on previous posters:
* The actual failure rate during initial years for startups is not as high as most people think. However most surviving startups in IT sector doesn't really get anywhere, only a very small percentage will make it big.
I've worked for 2 startups in OC and both are still privately owned and medium sized. After ownership changes they both changed names and you likely have never heard of them. They ended up finding a niche market & cling to few large customers, like supply chain risk management & mobile inventory management solutions. They will likely never make it big and, most of you will never know their names or products.
The company issue press releases like major corporations but nobody bothers to read them. I know because I used to issue the press releases on social media with like single digit followers. It was nice working for small startups where pay is not high but you get free food and play video games with your coworkers, but not a good long term prospect.
* The housing prices here (LA/OC/LB) is now comparable to Tokyo for condos. But unlike Tokyo we don't have a lot of mid to high rise condo buildings with small & more affordable units. There are various issues like aversion to high density housing, aversion to small sq ft housing, risk to developer if RE market crashes, lack of better mass transit infrastructure and so on.
Although more land is avail in inland regions, you still have issues like transportation infrastructure, lack of water resources and so on. Considering the cost of building freeways it's difficult to construct more freeways and lane expansions, and mass transit options from inland areas to costal job areas is also lacking except for few hubs like Riverside for the slow train.
* I've been to Singapore about 5-6 times. It's not really a tax haven and the weather is hot. But the government has a workable public housing policy for majority of its citizens, but not the poor migrant workers who have to squeeze into shared common rental rooms. Food is good and if you want to pay less for stuff, Malaysia is next door for cheap(er) shopping.
