San Francisco to Austin: leftover after California tax

On the default profile — one adult, one bedroom, local pay for a registered nurse — leftover after tax and rent is about $2,364 a month in San Francisco and $3,181 in Austin. That is $817 more leftover in Austin, or about $9,800 a year. The San Francisco → Austin move page and the San Francisco vs Austin compare use that same household on both metros.

Two legal facts do most of the work. California taxes wage income; Texas does not. And a new one-bedroom lease in Austin is modelled far below a new one-bedroom lease in San Francisco. A COL index will shout about the rent and stay silent about the tax. Leftover subtracts both from the local paycheck.

Local pay matters. A nurse who takes Austin wages is not keeping a UCSF paycheck. Remote workers who hold Bay Area pay constant will see a larger leftover jump, because they dropped the tax and the rent without dropping the salary. The state tax and rent tradeoffs guide is the general version; this page is the pair people actually search.

IRS county-to-county returns for 2022–2023 counted 1,436 households (about 2,485 people) that left the San Francisco metro for Austin, with average AGI around $281,000. 758 households went the other way. AGI is reported income on a tax return, not leftover and not a typical nurse salary — this corridor includes well-paid households, which is why the average looks nothing like the default profile.

That split is useful. The leftover gap on a nurse paycheck is already large. The leftover gap on a $280k household that keeps remote pay can be larger still, until Austin rent for the bedrooms that household actually wants eats the raise. Run the salary you have, not the IRS average.

The metros are about 1,800 road miles apart. On a one-bedroom move the model's typical ranges are roughly $1,700–$3,200 to rent a truck and $3,950–$7,400 for a full-service crew — ranges, not quotes, and peak summer will sit at the high end. The how much leftover do you need test is whether the leftover gain recoups that bill inside a year. $817 a month clears even the high crew range in well under a year, on this household.

The first 60 days still need cash the new leftover has not earned yet: deposit, first month, possible overlap on the old lease, the truck. Leftover next June does not pay May's movers.

Austin property tax is steep compared with California's owner-occupied bill, which matters if you buy. The compare page models a rent path on the default household. Switch tenure to buy and the leftover story changes; do not take the rent leftover into a mortgage conversation.

Schools, heat, and the fact that Austin is no longer a secret are also off-model as “should you go.” The Austin paycheck page and the Austin schools page are the next clicks, not a ranking of districts. The how to read a city page guide is the legend.

Chicago → Austin is a sibling story with a different tax pair (Illinois flat tax vs none) and a similar leftover gain on the default household — about $796 more a month. Open Chicago to Austin if that is the corridor you are actually in. Do not reuse the San Francisco title.

1. Set job, salary, bedrooms and remote vs local on the homepage.
2. Reopen Moving from San Francisco to Austin and the compare. The path is the pair; the household is in the link.
3. If leftover in Austin is still the one you can live on, put Austin on a four-city shortlist from rankings and go look at listings. If it is not, the $817 on the default nurse is not your number.

Estimates only. The methodology is the source list. This is not tax advice and not a recommendation to leave California.