There is a distinct, unmistakable moment—or a slow accumulation of them—when a person or family realizes it is finally time to leave L.A.
I grew up in the ’80s and ’90s in Eugene, Oregon, dreaming of California. Living in sunny Southern California near the beach was the ultimate goal. When I finally moved there in the summer of 1995 just before my senior year of high school, my life became entirely about volleyball. As an indoor and beach player, I trained, played, and competed for hours on just about every indoor court and beach down the Southern California coast from age 4 to age 40. California was 100% my dream lifestyle, and for decades, it was a beautiful place and a true blessing to call home. I still vividly remember being back in Oregon, dreaming about my summer California tournaments while listening to Sheryl Crow sing about the sun coming up over Santa Monica Boulevard, blasting the Beach Boys, and watching Disneyland commercials, thinking about how incredible it would be to live there.
But what happens when that dream lifestyle is no longer what it was 10, 20, or 30 years ago? What happens when it stops being the dream place to live because crime, fires, homelessness, and sky-high taxes finally have you at your wit’s end?
Once I arrived in 1995, I quickly knew I never wanted to leave—and I never would have, if the state hadn’t been overrun by political mismanagement and bad policy. I ended up staying exactly 30 years. It wasn’t until right after the intense L.A. fires in 2025 that my husband and I finally hit our breaking point. The sky-high taxes from being in the highest tax bracket, the political corruption, the fires, the drug problems, the visible decay—the list simply went on and on.
For some, this hard realization hits when they are personally confronted with crime, or when uncontrolled fires threaten a neighbor’s home. For others, it hits when they sit down and look at what they are actually surrendering to the State in taxes.
This clarity often arrives in March or early April before the tax deadline, or perhaps during a quarterly portfolio meeting with a wealth advisor. You find yourself looking at an isolated line-item allocation that eclipses every other annual operational or personal expense: the California state income tax. For those rooted in premium areas like Manhattan Beach, the Palos Verdes Peninsula, or the Westside of Los Angeles, that financial reality has long been accepted as the baseline price of admission for coastal morning fog, world-class local dining, and the classic “SoCal Lifestyle.”
But over the past 5 to 10 years—and most noticeably since Covid—a profound structural shift has taken place. The traditional calculation of balancing state inefficiencies and high taxes against California’s natural beauty has systematically unraveled. High-net-worth individuals, executives, Hollywood actors, liquid founders, and high-performing entrepreneurs are no longer quietly absorbing compounding regulatory burdens, expanding fiscal shortfalls, and the looming legislative threat of an institutional “exit tax.” Instead, they are executing a highly coordinated relocation, one by one. We all come to this conclusion at different times. I’m just thankful my husband and I made the move when we did. Now that we are settled in Summerlin, my only wish is that we had done it much sooner.
As a real estate professional who built a successful business serving discerning clients in Manhattan Beach—navigating average transactional thresholds of $4.5M – $8M+ — I spent years analyzing what drew people to the South Bay lifestyle. As an ex-professional beach and indoor volleyball player, Manhattan Beach was my absolute dream home. So, what changed?
For us, the shift started slowly around Covid. We began to observe how dramatically L.A. had changed over the last decade, and how significantly it differed from the city I moved to 30 years ago. Even as our eyes opened to the state mismanagement, we weren’t quite ready to admit that we needed to move out of state; we were deeply entrenched in our Manhattan Beach and L.A. communities.
Then, about two to three years ago, we sat down and analyzed our long-term capital preservation metrics. We had no choice but to draw our own conclusion: the benefits of L.A. no longer came close to outweighing the frustrations and negatives of living in California.
It still took us a few years to finally make the move because we wanted to be absolutely certain. We visited Florida, Texas, North Carolina, and Tennessee. My husband and I liked many of those places, but none of them quite felt like “home” to both of us.
After the fires in L.A. in January of 2025, we knew we had to get out, but we didn’t have total clarity yet on where to go. Then, after an interesting turn of events, we decided to take a trip to Las Vegas—specifically, Summerlin—just to see if we could envision ourselves here.
After seeing all that Summerlin had to offer and how beautiful and meticulous kept it was, we fell in love. We packed up our lives, closed my book of business in California, and established our primary residency in Summerlin, Las Vegas.
What we discovered on the ground was a total revelation: migrating from California to Southern Nevada is no longer a compromise. It is a massive lifestyle upgrade, and the financial strategy behind it makes it an absolute no-brainer. Here is an objective, insider’s look at why Southern California’s high-net-worth individuals, entrepreneurs, and families are choosing the master-planned communities of Summerlin over the California coast.
1. The Fiscal Pivot: Decoupling from the 13.3% California State Income Tax Burden
To understand the current relocation wave, you must look directly at the balance sheet. California’s top marginal income tax rate sits at a staggering 13.3%. Coupled with recent expansions to payroll taxes and regional levies, high-earning individuals regularly see more than half of their gross annualized revenue surrendered to state and federal entities. For an active professional generating $2M to $5M in annual pass-through business income or executive compensation, that represents a wealth export that cannot be offset by any amount of coastal appreciation.
In stark contrast, Nevada stands as one of a select few states with zero state income tax, zero corporate income tax, and zero inheritance tax. When you transition your primary domicile from the South Bay or Westside to Las Vegas, the immediate financial relief is equivalent to a substantial, permanent liquidity event.
The Looming 2027 Exit Tax Threat
Beyond the annual income tax erosion, a structural legislative threat has accelerated the timeline for many California wealth creators. Persistent conversations surrounding proposed wealth taxes and structural “exit taxes”—which seek to penalize high-net-worth individuals retroactively on global wealth even after they vacate the state—have shifted into foreseeable risk factors. With key policy frameworks targeted for mature implementation near 2027, forward-thinking founders and family offices recognize that the window to cleanly establish Nevada residency, decouple from the California Franchise Tax Board (FTB), and let their wealth compound in a tax-neutral environment is open right now.
An Advisor’s Note on Tax Residency: While the financial mathematics of a Nevada move are bulletproof, executing the transition requires precision. I am a Luxury Real Estate Advisor, not a CPA or a tax attorney. Decoupling from California requires more than buying a house; it requires a structural shift in your “center of gravity”—including the 183-day physical presence metric, bank account alignment, business registrations, and real estate holdings. Working with elite advisory teams who understand this transition is paramount.
2. Space, Security, and Scale: The Real Estate Paradigm Shift
In Manhattan Beach, and in most beach communities across L.A. and Orange County, luxury is traditionally defined by proximity to the water. Buyers willingly deploy $3M to $8M to acquire a 4,000-square-foot architectural home positioned on a compact 2,700-square-foot lot. Your panoramic ocean views are frequently framed by a neighbor’s roofline, and street parking during the summer months becomes a major logistical exercise. It is a beautiful lifestyle, but it is fundamentally constrained by geographical limits.
When you pivot your focus to the master-planned luxury communities of Summerlin—specifically ultra-exclusive enclaves like The Ridges, Country Club Hills, or the Tier-1 custom sites at The Summit Club—the concept of luxury undergoes a complete structural redefinition. Here, a $5M to $10M capital allocation alters your lifestyle scale entirely:
Uncompromised Footprints: Estates ranging from 6,000 to over 12,000 square feet, situated on sprawling half-acre to multi-acre custom homesites.
Architectural Masterpieces: Contemporary desert modernism featuring true indoor-outdoor living execution, pocketing glass walls, expansive private courtyards, and sub-terrain collector garages that would be structurally impossible along the Southern California coast.
Guard-Gated Sovereignty: Security is no longer an afterthought or a localized alarm system. Summerlin’s premium neighborhoods feature multi-tiered, guard-gated entry protocols, 24/7 roaming patrols, and perimeter infrastructure designed for complete privacy and peace of mind.
For individuals increasingly concerned with rising urban friction, property crime, and municipal mismanagement in L.A. hubs and Southern California Coastal cities, the immaculate, private, and highly managed presentation of Summerlin offers a sense of psychological and physical safety that money can no longer reliably buy in California.
3. The Summerlin Lifestyle: Wellness, Immaculate Design, and World Class Cuisine
One of the most persistent misconceptions held by coastal Californians is that relocating to Summerlin means sacrificing lifestyle sophistication. Losing the Southern California restaurants, the high-end shopping, the wellness culture, and the upscale beach life we’ve all become accustomed to in L.A. was a massive concern of mine. Having spent years walking the Strand in Manhattan Beach and dining all throughout L.A. and Orange County, I held those exact anxieties. However, all of those fears were quickly dispelled once I realized how much Summerlin and the general Las Vegas area actually have to offer.
A Haven for Longevity, Wellness and Active High Performers
If your morning routine in California revolves around ocean swims, beach days, premium training facilities, and organic markets, Summerlin integrates that exact same lifestyle seamlessly. The community features over 250 parks, interconnected luxury trail systems for cycling and trail running, and world-class athletic facilities. Life Time Athletic Summerlin is not merely a fitness club; it operates as a multi-acre social, athletic, and executive co-working hub for the area’s high-performing residents. And with ClassPass, you can easily visit premium pilates and fitness studios all throughout the Summerlin and general Las Vegas area.
Shopping and culinary infrastructure have evolved to cater directly to an affluent, global palate. Downtown Summerlin offers an open-air retail experience featuring high-end boutiques, curated wellness concepts, and artisanal grocers like Whole Foods Market. Rather than braving the tourist-centric ecosystem of the Las Vegas Strip, Summerlin residents enjoy an exceptional local dining scene. From sophisticated neighborhood favorites to highly acclaimed off-Strip culinary concepts led by Michelin-recognized talent, the options for high-end dining, organic clean eating, and evening networking are abundant.
4. The 45-Minute Commute: Maintaining Your California Connection
For the active professional—the venture capitalist, corporate executive, or elite entrepreneur—relocating to Las Vegas does not mean severing ties with the Southern California economy. In fact, many executives (including my husband and me) discover that their net productivity actually increases after the move.
Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) sits minutes from Summerlin and operates as one of the most accessible, high-capacity aviation hubs in the United States. Commercial flights to LAX, Orange County (SNA), or San Diego (SAN) average roughly 45 to 60 minutes in the air. For those utilizing private aviation, premier Fixed Base Operators (FBOs) provide seamless, friction-free departures that allow you to leave your Summerlin estate at 7:00 AM and sit in a board meeting in Century City or Santa Monica by 9:00 AM.
You can effectively retain your California economic footprint, service your legacy accounts, and maintain your professional and personal network (including your trusted doctors and hairstylists), all while protecting your primary income, capital gains, and estate assets under the highly protective umbrella of Nevada residency.
5. Designing Your Next Chapter with a Peer Who Has Successfully Done It — And Can Teach You How to Do It Better
Building a brand-new book of business in a new city requires total transparency. I did not move to Summerlin, Las Vegas because I was a novice real estate agent looking for an affordable market. I spent years transacting at the highest levels of Southern California coastal real estate, advising clients who demanded absolute perfection, discretion, and market intelligence.
I chose to transition to Summerlin, aligning my business with the exceptional luxury framework of IS Luxury, because the data points were undeniable. The future of high-net-worth wealth preservation and lifestyle design is happening right here in Summerlin and the Las Vegas Valley.
Starting from scratch in a new market means I view the local inventory through a highly critical, sophisticated lens. I do not look at Summerlin, Las Vegas real estate merely in terms of square footage and price-per-foot; I evaluate it against the rigorous standards of Manhattan Beach, Brentwood, and Newport Beach. I understand the exact spatial, structural, and cultural elements you are accustomed to, and I know precisely where to find them—or build them—here in Summerlin, Las Vegas
If you are observing the shifting landscape in California, calculating your multi-year tax exposure ahead of 2027, or simply seeking an environment where your family can thrive in a safe, dynamic, and forward-looking community, let this be your invitation to explore what is possible.
The wealth preservation is predictable. The lifestyle upgrade is the real surprise. Let’s connect to discuss your relocation strategy, explore the off-market luxury pipeline in Summerlin, and ensure your transition is executed seamlessly.
Let’s Connect:
If you’re interested in learning more or just want to hop on a call to get a real perspective on the area, please reach out to me directly at 310-487-8422. I would love to meet you, learn exactly what you’re looking for, and show you how I can help.
© 2026 JAIMI GREGORY FREEMAN LLC
EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY.
NV LIC #: S.0205780 / IS LUXURY LLC NV LIC #: BS.0046822
2130 PARK CENTRE DR SUITE 120 LAS VEGAS, NV 89135
310-487-8422
