re: States without income tax - how much of an effect does it have on standard of living?

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Moved from Prairieville, LA to central Florida and property taxes aren't that much higher.

They make up the difference by tons of toll roads and all the out of towners that drive em.

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LOL - No shite. Tolls around Orlando are insane. I made a day trip from Fort Lauderdale to Cental Florida last Saturday to handle 8 Hurricane Irma claims. No tolls on I-95 going up or back but I had to pay 5 different tolls just getting around Orlando.

In South Florida, the taxes are higher than other areas of the state but the real killer is housing costs. That is also what drives the higher property taxes and higher homeowner's insurance rates......along with our exposure to hurricanes and the fact that we are the insurance fraud capital of America.

States without income taxes tend to have the highest rates of regressive taxes. They have to get their money from somewhere, and since it's usually done through sales taxes it puts a larger burden on low income people. So these states tend to be good if you're rich but otherwise not so much.

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Their property taxes are higher

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My taxes here in Williamson County, TN are lower than my parents in Prairieville. What else you got?

When I moved from Georgia to Florida it helped me quite a bit. Property taxes went up some but by much less than the income taxes I quit paying. But I also built in a county with low property taxes. If I'd built in two neighboring counties the property taxes would be nearly twice as high and the savings would have been a lot lower. Florida also has no sales tax on food so my sales tax went down.

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And if you rent, you don't pay them.

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This is true. I have rental property and in the past, my property taxes went up but I was not able to charge higher rent based on the rental market. This boom cycle, I have been able to charge more rent to make up for my higher property valuation. But I think rents are about to stop rising but I will probably get hit with another higher valuation soon which I probably won't be able to make up in higher rents.

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So rent?

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Someone owns the property...

Side note; property tax sucks... Even if you own your house and property, you don't really own it....

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Rent for apartments out in suburbs is not quite the same

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Property taxes are higher in Collin county, which is the suburbs. Which is why I mentioned them. Average rent in Frisco is like $1400. It's about $1100 in Dallas.

And I live in Dallas now. Rent in Dallas proper is still lower than equivalent cities I listed.

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Houston is actually what popped up for me. The job only pays ~$50k (though with music I can easily supplement an extra $1000/month), so I was worried about it being enough to live on in such a big city. But the lack of state income tax was intriguing. My wife is a teacher and based on a quick search of average salaries at her experience and education level, she'd pull in about $55k. Seems like $105k/year combined income would be a nice standard of living in Houston.

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Teachers are paid much more in Houston than in Louisiana. Many folks live okay on 100K income in the suburbs of Houston.

Also need to factor in the schools are much better in the burbs of Houston vs. Louisiana. The cost of living is about 20% less from what the reports say and that's mainly due to gas being cheaper and with the Houston port right there merchandise at most stores, ex: a Lowes in Houston will be cheaper across the board than in Louisiana. The larger savings comes from home construction projects. This is much cheaper and no shortage of guys to choose from but may need a translator.

We moved to Houston about 4 years ago and instantly home owners insurance was cheaper on a nicer home and car insurace was roughly half. Car insurance was the biggest shock to me, didn't expect it to be so much cheaper in Houston.

There are toll roads and people are on the highway more in Houston for sure commuting to work. But also there are many fortune 500 companies in Houston and can change jobs for better pay if needed.

I know in Texas property taxes are really high. So may just even it all out. No matter what, the Gov will get its money.

Texas is listed in the top 5 highest property taxes but here is a comparison to Louisiana with state income tax and property tax.

Using $100,000 income married filing jointly, Louisiana state income tax is $2638.

Property taxes in Louisiana average $1864, with average home value of $183,591.

Total state taxes for Louisiana is $4502

Texas average property tax = $4660 ($226,553 average home value.

So, even though Texas does not have state income tax the total tax burden is $158 less in Louisiana for this example.