• A boomer and his wife moved to Kansas after living in California for 50 years.
• He and his wife sold their home for $1.4 million and bought a historic home in Kansas for less than $400,000.
• He said it's much easier to make friends in Kansas and the cost of living is much lower.

Mike H., 73, lived in California for 50 years, but it was a high school reunion in Kansas that made him move back.

The former architectural designer had a home north of the Golden Gate Bridge that he bought over 30 years ago, and although he loved the weather and his job, he knew he wanted to return to Kansas, where he attended high school.

In 2020, he and his wife sold their home and moved to a suburb of Kansas City. They bought a historic property for a third of the price of their home in California and said life was more peaceful with friendlier people, less traffic and cheaper prices.

“California changed so much in the time I lived there that toward the end we couldn’t get out of there fast enough,” Mike said. “We weren’t really happy there for 10 to 15 years as it became more and more crowded and the condition deteriorated.”

Many Californians have told BI that they are moving to states with lower costs of living, better work-life balance and better climate conditions. According to the Census Bureau's ACS data table, about 818,000 people left California between 2021 and 2022, while 475,800 followed suit.

While the California to Texas and California to Arizona routes were the most popular, over 5,500 people moved from California to Kansas between 2021 and 2022.

Leaving California after five decades

Mike, whose identity is known to Business Insider but who requested partial anonymity for privacy reasons, grew up in Minneapolis but moved to Kansas with his family when he was 15. He lived there for five years and moved to California in 1970. He knew he wanted to live in California after a trip to Disneyland at age 10.

For most of his time in California, he lived in Mill Valley, north of the Golden Gate Bridge. He recalled frequently seeing celebrities on the way from his home on Highway 1 to downtown San Francisco. From 1988 until his move in 2020, he lived in what was known as a “treehouse fixer-upper.”

He initially worked as a building contractor and then switched to architecture and planning. Although he enjoyed life in California and had a successful career, he said his area has lost its charm over the last decade. He said at times the traffic was so heavy that he couldn't leave his house because cars were parked in his driveway.

He said it was difficult to find parking at the grocery store around his house. He noted that infrastructure in his area had begun to crumble, and he said the quality of public education nearby had declined. As he got older, he also said that it became harder to make friends and that situations felt more and more tense. He said it has been a challenge getting to know some of his neighbors.

Still, he and his wife didn't want to move because Proposition 13 fixed their property taxes when they bought their home. They thought they could move to Phoenix or Reno, but neither attracted them.

In 2018, he received an invitation to his 50th high school reunion in Kansas and realized that the state he briefly called home as a child was the place he needed to move.

“We drove around and I thought this place was beautiful and so clean. The streets were so wide that you could park right outside the front door of your destination. We found this place really livable,” Mike said. “We came back to California, and about a week later we were reminiscing and finally said, let’s get out of here and go to Kansas.”

The move to the Kansas City metro took a year and a half because his wife still had a few months until retirement and they still needed to remodel their home in California.

“To be honest, if we hadn't gone to that meeting in 2018, we would probably still be living in the same house in California because moving would suddenly require new taxes everywhere I move to.” said Mike. “I could have sold the house for a lot of money, but my next house would cost a lot of money.”

Moving to Kansas: Pros and Cons

In 2020, they sold their California home for $1.4 million and moved to Westwood Hills, a town of 400 on the Kansas-Missouri border and about a 15-minute drive from Kansas City. They purchased a 1927 home listed on the National Register of Historic Places for less than $400,000.

He estimates he pays more taxes in Kansas, and when he first moved he said he was surprised at how similar some prices were, such as at the hardware store. He also said dining out is about the same in the two states.

While he acknowledged his comparisons aren't entirely accurate due to inflation during the pandemic, he said the cost of food, energy and water is much lower in Kansas. Even if he runs the heat or air conditioning year-round, his utility bills are a fraction of what he spent in California. While gasoline costs an average of $4.74 per gallon in California, gasoline costs $2.91 per gallon in Kansas.

While he said water is expensive and scarce in California, he said he can now have a nice lawn and have barbecues outside without the stress of running out of water.

He said he and his wife are prepared for colder winters, although the last few months have been more than bearable. He and some of his friends expected Kansas to be miles of barren, flat land, even though he said his area had lots of greenery, rolling hills and streams.

Mike said that meeting new people and making friends is much easier in Kansas. A car enthusiast whose friends have moved away from the Bay Area, he joined a group of a dozen locals who meet weekly to discuss and try out cars.

“It's easier to live here. The streets are wider, the traffic is less aggressive, no one honks the horn or rages in the street,” Mike said, adding that his community reminds him of Minnesota.

He said he has no intention of leaving Kansas and noted that his experience so far has been a pleasant surprise.

“I’m not a California basher because California has been very good to me and it’s a beautiful place,” Mike said. “I miss the palm trees, the proximity to the sea and the daily sight of the bay, but that wasn’t enough to keep us.”

Have you recently moved to a new state or relocated from the United States to another country? Contact this reporter at nsheidlower@businessinsider.com.

Correction: March 5, 2024 – This post has been updated to clarify Mike's original location in California.

The post Transferring From California to Kansas for Retirement: Professionals and Cons appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

• A millennial who moved to California from Tennessee said California is much more working-class friendly.
• He said he gets more protections and benefits as a nurse in California, as well as a higher salary.
• While housing prices are higher in California, he said many of his costs are cheaper than in Tennessee.

Matthew, 38, was working in northeast Tennessee as an orderly at a hospital when he realized he could live a less stressful, more lucrative life in another state doing the same work.

Matthew — whose identity is known to Business Insider and requested partial anonymity for privacy reasons — and his wife, who is also a registered nurse, decided that California would be the ideal destination. California would give him paid family leave, mandatory breaks and lunches, and better overtime laws. He said the policies of California are a lot more working-class employee friendly than in Tennessee, and since he moved in 2016, he said his work-life balance has been a lot better.

Still, he didn’t want to move to a major city like San Francisco or San Diego with a high cost of living. He settled on a city in central California which had a much lower cost of living but comparable wages for jobs.

“Many that leave California to go to the East Coast or to corporate-friendly states like Texas and Tennessee don’t know any better,” Matthew said. “They were born in California. They don’t know how good they have it.”

Matthew’s move went a little against the grain compared to how many other Americans have been switching states. The California to Tennessee move was one of the more popular routes between 2021 to 2022 at nearly 22,600 movers — though around 5,500 still made the opposite move during the same period, according to US Census data.

Many former Californians are moving to Tennessee for cheaper cost of living, friendlier people, and a slower pace of life. But for Matthew and many other former Tennesseans, California has many more opportunities for workers — and not every part of the state is outrageously expensive.

Not everything is more expensive in California

When he moved in 2016, he said his $295,000 home in California cost about as much as his Tennessee home, though housing has gotten quite a bit more expensive, he said. Though homes cost more per square foot, he said they’re also sturdier due to earthquake standards. He also said housing insurance is actually cheaper in California, and new homes are often renovated and come with new amenities, compared to homes on the market in Tennessee that aren’t as well maintained.

Additionally, he said his home in Tennessee would be frequently reassessed, which would hike up property taxes.

He said that while gas is a lot more expensive in California, he’s also driving a third of the distance to get to work or the grocery store. He also said his water bill is around three times cheaper in California.

He said he’s also willing to pay more in California for dining out as California doesn’t have a tipped minimum wage — in Tennessee, employers can pay tipped employees as little as $2.13 an hour, provided wages and tips together add up to $7.25 an hour. California has an hourly minimum wage of $15.50, which will rise to $16 in 2024.

Though the temperature gets high in central California, he said the low humidity makes summers much more bearable than Tennessee, where humidity sometimes is 100%. He hasn’t once had to scrape frost off his car as he did in Tennessee, and he doesn’t miss the tornadoes or thunderstorms that would sometimes ravage through Tennessee.

He convinced one of his friends to move out to California, though he wishes more of his family would move from Tennessee, citing better healthcare and retirement options. He said contrary to what many believe, his area of California is more laid back than in Tennessee where in his industry, people would skip lunch and fire on all cylinders to get their work done.

California is ‘more working-class friendly’

Matthew didn’t want to work as a nurse in Tennessee where nurse-to-patient ratios are low, meaning he’d have to work longer hours with few breaks and not enough pay. California requires one nurse for every two intensive or critical care patients for instance, while Tennessee does not have state laws for these ratios.

California had all sorts of policies and laws in place to protect registered nurses, including state-funded temporary disability coverage and paid baby bonding leave for up to six weeks. California also has daily overtime laws in addition to double-time pay for working over 12 hours a day, compared to weekly overtime laws in Tennessee.

Matthew was in a car accident a few years ago in California and was out on leave for 60 days for physical therapy, and he said he made the same amount he would’ve made working due to the state’s temporary disability paid for by state taxes.

“If you’re in a car accident and can’t work in Tennessee, and you didn’t take out your own individual policy from an individual insurance company that has temporary disability, you’re probably going to go bankrupt because there’s nothing to protect you.”

Additionally, he recalled how he was shocked his employers in California forced him to take a 30-minute lunch break and two other 15-minute breaks or else they would get penalized per state laws. He said one of his friends’ offices has an alarm that goes off whenever it’s time for somebody to take a break.

While the process for approving to transfer his Tennessee nursing license in California was slow, Matthew said they moved as soon as they were approved, noting how California is “everything I thought it would be as far as being employee friendly.”

His area of central California has five different hospitals, compared to just one hospital system in northeast Tennessee.

“In California, you’ve got nurses that actually get their breaks most of the time, you’ve got nurse to patient ratios, so that makes the work culture better because not everybody’s exhausted,” Matthew said. “I genuinely didn’t know what a break was when I moved to California.”

Moving to California has also made Matthew feel more economically secure about his long-term future. At his job in California, he gets a 6% 401(k) match in addition to company-funded guaranteed amount retirement pensions, compared to just 3% company matching at his job in Tennessee. He also said pay increases at his current role are a lot less arbitrary and more performance-based.

“It’s absolutely where I want to stay, unless there’s some miracle where Tennessee changes to be more employee friendly, which I don’t see ever happening,” Matthew said.

Have you recently moved to a new state? Contact this reporter at nsheidlower@insider.com.

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• Tennessee’s population grew by 82,988 people in 2022, the largest amount in a year since 2007.
• People who have recently moved to the state cite its affordability and slower pace of life as draws.
• Four newcomers share the ins and outs of life in the southern state.

James Ballard did a quick calculation and found that he could no longer afford to live in Clearwater.

The 50-year-old Florida resident decided to pack up and move to Memphis, Tennessee, to get a more manageable mortgage payment while still earning a steady income.

“There’s a song by Tom T. Hall called ‘That’s How I Got to Memphis,'” Ballard told Insider.

“I never thought this would happen to me, but it happened,” he joked about his new immigration status.

Ballard, 66, had an $800 mortgage payment on a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home in Clearwater, Florida. He almost cut it in half by moving to Memphis, where he pays $480 for a similar-sized house.

Housing affordability and low taxes are a big draw for many people who choose Tennessee, where there is no income tax and the median annual property tax is about half the national average of $1,317, according to SmartAsset.

Real estate agent Brenna Foster, who was born and raised in Knoxville, also pointed to the great Southern weather and hospitality as reasons people from across the country flock to the area. Foster said clients have recently moved to Tennessee from New York, New Jersey and California.

“It was crazy just last year,” she said. The numbers confirm it. Tennessee ranked seventh out of all 50 states for population growth from July 1, 2021 to July 1, 2022, adding 82,988 residents according to the US Census Bureau.

Cities in Tennessee consistently feature on lists of the best places to live in the United States for a variety of reasons. With the job market evolving, particularly in the tech sector, and property prices remaining below the national median, bang for your buck seems like an easy choice.

According to Redfin, the median home selling price in Tennessee in January was $356,100, while the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis put the national median home selling price in January at $427,500.

Four people who have moved to Tennessee shared some of the pros and cons — from affordability to a lot of junk — of moving to the southern state.

A longtime Florida resident is happy in Memphis — though he thinks it could be cleaner

James Ballard only visited Memphis once, 20 years earlier, before moving there in 2022. Getty Images

Ballard only visited Memphis once before deciding to move there in November 2022. The visit was about 20 years ago when he and a friend were driving from their home in Florida to Graceland, the former home of Elvis Presley.

His latest fascination with Tennessee came from watching YouTube videos while looking for a place to change clothes, he said.

“It turned out to be a great choice,” he said. “Memphis has a lot of charm.”

Ballard paid $150,000 for a newly renovated home in Memphis’ Raleigh neighborhood, property records show.

But he has one major complaint about the city of around 628,000: the garbage.

“People throw things out of their cars like it’s nothing,” he said. “To say Memphis has a garbage problem is to say Moby Dick was a small fish. It’s more than a problem.”

Still, Ballard is happy with his decision and thinks Tennessee is right for him. Ballard joked that with his southern accent, he wouldn’t fit into a city like Detroit, and knew he wanted to stay south.

“Memphis turned out to be a great place to land for me,” he said. “I’m really happy here.”

He traded the snowy Buffalo for the ease of southern living

Michael and Danielle Ekstrum moved to Tennessee after becoming empty nesters in 2018. Courtesy of Michael Ekstrum

Michael Ekstrum, finance manager at a medical device company, relocated to Chattanooga, Tennessee from Buffalo, New York.

While some northerners moving to Tennessee complain that the summer months are getting too warm, Ekstrum, 55, welcomes climate change.

Ekstrum has multiple sclerosis and told Insider that the snowy weather’s challenges – shoveling, blistering and scraping – took a toll on his health.

“Oddly enough, heat is said to be a problem for most people with MS,” he said. “In my case, the cold really hurt.”

Ekstrum and his wife, Danielle, moved from a 1,300-square-foot home in Buffalo to a 5,300-square-foot home in Tennessee in October 2018 after becoming vacant nests. According to public records, they sold the Buffalo home for $251,000 and bought the Chattanooga home for $430,000.

Now they don’t have to worry about clearing the driveway. The average snowfall in Chattanooga is 3.6 inches, according to weather.gov, while Buffalo recorded 64.7 inches in December 2022 alone.

“I wake up here any time of the year, go to my door and start driving,” said Ekstrum. “I don’t have to worry about the weather at all.”

The warmer weather didn’t come as a shock to Ekstrum, but another thing he enjoyed about the change of scenery was the surprising amount of variety.

“There’s a stereotype about the South — particularly the Deep South — that it’s not diverse and it’s very backward thinking,” he said. “There is a wide range of different opinions, different personalities and diverse experiences. It’s refreshing to be in a more racially diverse realm.”

A retiree fed up with California’s overcrowding bought a home in Tennessee without thinking twice

Michael and Bonnie Tyler relocated from Sacramento, California to Jonesborough, a historic town in eastern Tennessee. Paul Harris/Getty Images

Michael Tyler and his wife Bonnie made frequent trips to Tennessee before deciding to move there.

Tyler, 69, had lived in California all his life but said he’d watched Sacramento deteriorate over the years.

“There’s too much traffic, too many people, it’s way too expensive, and there’s no water,” Tyler told Insider.

Content with settling far from the West Coast, Tyler and his wife narrowed their choice between The Villages — a central Florida retirement community — and Tennessee. In June 2021, Tyler, his wife and two friends visited the two destinations to make a decision.

On their way to breakfast in Jonesborough, east Tennessee, the quartet stopped in a neighborhood to look at a few houses. Both couples reserved homes on site.

“My wife and I looked at this house and it was in a nice area and it was still being built, and I was like, ‘Okay, I’ll take it,'” Tyler said.

Tyler mailed the home builder a check for $2,000 to reserve the 2,700-square-foot, four-bedroom, three-bathroom home. He later paid $400,000 to buy it. They sold their 1,200-square-foot California condo for $415,000 — in just six hours, Tyler said.

Tyler and his wife were excited about the move and were even more excited when they arrived.

“We were very happy – vertigo is almost the right word for it,” Tyler said. “We love it here. People are nice here. And of course it’s a lot cheaper than living in California.”

A California mover sees Nashville as the next big tech hub

Nashville’s live music scene has long drawn visitors and travelers to the city. Robert Alexander/Getty Images

Bruce saw more than charm in Tennessee.

The 63-year-old, who works in the startup space and asked to only use his first name for privacy reasons, relocated to Nashville from the San Francisco Bay Area in 2021.

He believes the Tennessee capital could very well be on the way to becoming the next Austin, Texas. Its technology sector is thriving with the arrival of Dell, Oracle, Amazon and others.

“I went to Nashville a few times a few years ago and just bumped into a lot of what I call smart 27-year-olds,” Bruce told Insider. “They’re out here because they see it’s a great place to start and I think that bodes well for a place.”

Bruce thinks Austin is “overcooked” with its sky-high real estate prices and transplant invasion. He said it no longer has the same up-and-coming feel as Nashville.

As for why he left the Bay Area, real estate prices didn’t make sense to him anymore.

“It’s become a very different place than it was 40 years ago when people could afford to live there,” he said. “Now it’s priceless and an inaccessible place.”

Bruce came for the more laid-back lifestyle that Nashville offers — and, he told Insiders, he also came for the live music.

“I was expecting a country music scene, but turns out there’s just about any type of music you could want to hear,” he said. “On a Friday afternoon, I just go to a place that has live music that’s walking distance from my house.”

Bruce traded a house in suburban Palo Alto for a loft in downtown Nashville with city views.

But there’s one thing Bruce misses in particular that California has and that Tennessee never will have.

“The biggest thing I miss is the sea,” he said. “I like to just listen to the sound of the ocean – it’s very zen for me.”

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While the nickname “Trader Jerry” doesn’t paint a picture of Jerry Jones as accurately as it did in the past, the Dallas Cowboys aren’t afraid to dip their toe in the cycling and trading circus that is the NFL blueprint.

One of the most interesting aspects of being a sports fan is trade speculation, and while the NBA and MLB make much better use of that interest in deadline deals during their respective regular seasons, trading during the NFL draft is just as fun and enjoyable.

Some of these deals already came about when the San Francisco 49ers paid a king’s ransom to trade up to the third overall pick to seemingly secure the team’s future franchise QB, and more are likely on the way.

The cowboys probably won’t be involved in any of the blockbuster deals, but don’t think for a second that they are just going to sit back and let the other 31 teams have all the fun. With that in mind, let’s examine some trading scenarios the cowboys might actually be involved in during the design weekend.

Trade back from 10th overall

While many are inhaling the apparent smoke screen regarding Dallas’ interest in a trade from the 10th overall pick to Florida TE Kyle Pitts pick, the cowboys are far more likely to choose to trade off their first pick, especially if a QB like Mac Jones, Justin Fields or Trey Lance are available when Dallas is on the clock.

Round one back trade is always a good option as it is a great opportunity to collect more top 100 picks that can be used to attract high profile players. NFL teams often overestimate their ability to properly distinguish between potential players. So when you have more swings on your plate, you have a better chance of the team winning a highly effective player.

Teams like the New England Patriots (selection # 15) or the Chicago Bears (selection # 20) could potentially be ready to qualify for a QB. And there’s even a chance the Minnesota Vikings (option # 14) and LA Chargers (option # 13) may be interested in swapping a few spots when Penei Sewell (or possibly even Rashawn Slater) is available to order improve their lines of attack.

For me it would be inadvisable to trade back with the bears to dial number 20 (or later with another team) as there is no guarantee that a first round prospect will still be on the board. However, it would be terribly tempting to go back to the 13-15 range for one more selection for Day 2 as I think there is a realistic chance that either Slater, Patrick Surtain II, or Jaycee Horn would still be on that selection Are available. Adding another top 75 selection while still getting a blue chip prospect could be one of the best scenarios for the Cowboys in Round 1.

Of course, there’s also a good chance Slater, Surtain and Horn will fall off the board depending on where Dallas has been trading to, which wouldn’t be ideal as it could create a scenario where Dallas would reach for someone like Trevon Moehrig from the TCU or Tulsa’s Zaven Collins, both good prospects, but not good values ​​in the top 15.

The cowboys must balance the risk / reward of a top 75 pick by potentially losing the last of their blue chip prospects. While I think the cowboys are most likely to knock and make a selection with 10th overall win, a trade down cannot be ruled out.

Trade back in R1 (or very early R2)

While it is possible to trade back from 10th overall, it is also possible to return to the top 32 to attract another prospect for the first round caliber.

If the Cowboys don’t pick a 10th-placed CB and instead choose to take someone like Slater with their first choice, then Dallas could be aggressive when it comes to securing a first-round caliber CB like Northwestern’s Greg Newsome or Virginia Tech’s Caleb Farley (both with medical histories that could cause them to fall further than their talent suggests) in their mid to late 20s or early 30s, which is likely to cost Dallas’ second-round election would (# 44) and one of their picks for the third round (# 75 or 99) based on the NFL commercial value table.

Even if Dallas picks a CB on their first pick, they could potentially even act to pick another defense attorney they desire, like Moehrig or Collins. While I don’t think this would be the best move, the cowboys don’t care what I think and they could still pull the trigger if they covet a certain perspective enough in the final third of the first round.

In a previous instance, Dallas didn’t jump all the way back to the first round, but the Cowboys sacrificed two picks from Day 2 to climb into the top-35 and pick a defender they coveted in 2014. Dallas sent the Nos away 47 and 78 picks to move 13 spots to 34th, picking DeMarcus Lawrence who has met a huge need and has become one of the most well-rounded DEs in the NFL.

Withdrawal to the first round is a risky move for the same reasons that trading in the first round is advisable as the team has fewer opportunities to fill holes and find players with high influence. However, this risk needs to be balanced with the team’s confidence in the assessment of the player it is acting for.

It would certainly hurt to sacrifice two top 100 picks, but the ability to pick two players who are highly rated in needy positions on the Dallas board is enticing. While you may be inclined to turn the draft off and start your evening after Dallas picks 10th overall, you should still keep an eye on what goes on for the remainder of the first round as the cowboys may not be ready on opening night of the draft.

Exchange day 3 for a “flashing light”

In 2020, the Cowboys exchanged two picks for the fifth round (one for 2020 and one for 2021) to move to the fourth round and select the Wisconsin center Tyler Biadasz, headed by Stephen Jones, executive vice president of Cowboys, as “Flashing” was described as light “because of the value it presented in the design at that time.

He was so highly valued that the Cowboys didn’t want to wait to see if he would fall by their fifth round election, so they traded him off, and I think it’s very likely that the team will do something similar to this one Year.

While it would be almost impossible to predict who that “blinking light” might be without knowing firsthand about the Dallas drafting board that no one outside of the organization has, it’s a good bet that some prospects will fall for a round get lower than where the cowboys graded them, which opens the door for them to be interested in a mid-round trade, especially if that prospect is playing in a position of need.

With five picks (# 115, 138, 179, 192, 227) on rounds 4 through 6, the cowboys will have the ammunition they need to trade anywhere on day 3 and get any “flashing light” that may appear, and I think , you will be.

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More cowboys coverage from the Dallas Morning News can be found here.

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