The allure of Las Vegas is drawing wealthy Californians away from the Golden State. Rising taxes, a surge in home searches, and increased luxury home sales in Vegas are evident signs of a shifting trend. The migration, marked by figures like Mark Wahlberg, reflects a broader discontent with California’s tax policies and a desire for a more tax-friendly and economically vibrant environment.
While it’s difficult at best to pinpoint a single statistic that proves an exodus from the Sunset Strip to the Las Vegas Strip among mansion owners, numbers from many corners of the economy show that rich folks are leaving Cali in dramatic numbers, while Vegas has seen some high-earning arrivals recently, including Wahlberg — who hopes to help build a movie studio there (more on that in a bit).
Meanwhile, about 27,300 fewer tax returns were filed in California between 2020 and 2021 that reported an adjusted gross income of at least $200,000, according to research by the non-profit Tax Foundation that cites IRS migration data. Last year, Redfin reported that Los Angeles and San Francisco accounted for the highest number of homebuyers searching to move to Las Vegas from April 2023 to June 2023.
And in terms of new Vegas construction, luxury homes worth in excess of $1 million sold at a record pace in the first half of 2023: 267, more than triple the number during the same period in 2018, according to numbers compiled by local research firm Home Builders Research and cited by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Overall in 2022, 2,130 luxury home sales of $1 million or more were completed in Southern Nevada, essentially unchanged from the elevated level in 2021, per the Nevada State Bank.
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