Washington to Northern Nevada, the question people are finally saying out loud

If you have lived in Washington for a long time, you have probably felt the shift. Five or ten years ago, most people were not sitting around the dinner table asking, “Does it still make sense to stay here long term?” Now I hear it constantly, especially from established professionals, empty nesters, and people who are serious about future planning.

What surprises a lot of folks is this, most Washington buyers we talk to are not leaving because they hate Washington. In fact, many of them love it. They love the water, the evergreens, the culture, the sports, and the energy of places like Seattle and the surrounding cities. The move conversation usually starts for a different reason. They are looking ahead at the next chapter and trying to decide if staying in Washington helps or hurts their long range plans.

And yes, Washington still has major economic anchors like Microsoft, Amazon, Boeing, and a long list of successful mid sized companies. But we are seeing more business leaders and high earning households re evaluating where they want to live, where they want to invest, and eventually where they want to retire. That is where Northern Nevada shows up on the shortlist, not as a random impulse move, but as a practical, lifestyle plus planning decision.

Who is actually calling us about Reno and Sparks?

The pattern is pretty consistent. The calls are rarely from someone who is forced out tomorrow. They are typically from people who are stable, established, and thinking two, five, even ten years ahead.

• Retirees and near retirees who want to understand what life looks like when you are living on investments or a more fixed income plan.
• Empty nesters who do not need the same house, same commute, or even the same climate they needed while raising kids.
• Professionals with flexibility who can work remotely and are asking, “If I can live anywhere, what location makes the most sense?”
• Business owners and executives who are evaluating operating costs, long term tax considerations, and where they want to be based as they build wealth.

There is also a small but real group of people exploring business relocation. Sometimes it is a full move, but often it is more of a partial shift. They might keep the company in Washington, but build a second hub in Reno, Nevada or Sparks, Nevada, or use Northern Nevada as a gathering place for remote teams.

Why Northern Nevada ends up on the shortlist

Most people I talk with are trying to balance three things at the same time, lifestyle, finances, and flexibility. Northern Nevada is not perfect for everyone, but it checks a lot of boxes that matter to future planners.

Financial planning, taxes, and living on investments

Let me be careful here. I am not a CPA, and you should always talk to your tax professional for specifics. But I can tell you what people are worried about and why they start looking at states like Nevada, Idaho, and Arizona when they want to stay on the West Coast.

When people are in their high earning years, or when they are nearing retirement and thinking about drawing from investments, they start paying closer attention to what their total cost of living looks like. Not just the mortgage. Not just the property taxes. They are looking at the whole picture, including future tax exposure and long term affordability.

In our conversations, the “new tax” topic comes up a lot because it was a moment that made people pause and do the math. For some households, that math triggered a bigger conversation, “If we are going to build our next chapter, is Washington still the best place to do it?”

Housing, the biggest surprise for Washington buyers

Here is one of the most common misconceptions I hear, “Reno is going to be way cheaper.” Sometimes yes, sometimes no, and sometimes it is more of a lateral move than people expect.

We had a Washington buyer in roughly the one million to one and a half million range, and they were surprised that pricing did not feel dramatically lower. They expected a huge drop and instead found that Reno, Nevada could feel comparable on price depending on neighborhood and home style.

Where the value conversation changes is what you get for that money. In many Reno area neighborhoods, especially in parts of south Reno, west Reno, and certain pockets around Sparks, you often see newer construction, more modern floor plans, and in many cases larger lots compared to what you might find within an hour of Seattle, where homes can be older and lots can be tighter.

Key takeaway: many Washington buyers experience a sticker shock moment, but then realize the comparison is not just price, it is price plus property type, lot size, age of home, and day to day lifestyle.

Cost of living beyond the mortgage

Once housing is on the table, the next questions usually go like this, “What about healthcare?” and “What about everyday expenses?”

Northern Nevada is relatively comparable on many daily cost items like groceries and gas, especially when you compare major metro areas. But the big categories are the ones that matter most when you are planning for retirement or semi retirement.

• Housing, purchase price, property taxes, insurance, and maintenance.
• Healthcare, access, providers, and proximity to the services you need.
• Transportation, how often you travel, and how easy it is to get in and out.

If you are building a plan for living off investments, these “big rocks” matter more than whether a gallon of milk costs a bit more or less.

Business owners, not always relocating, sometimes re positioning

This part is newer, but it has been coming up more. We have talked with people who are not necessarily moving an entire company out of Washington, but they are exploring Northern Nevada as a strategic base.

Here are a few themes we hear from business owners and executives:

• Operating costs and margins, what does it cost to run the business, hire, and grow?
• Commercial space needs, whether they want office, flex, industrial, or something more retreat style.
• Remote workforce reality, if employees can work from anywhere, where do you want to converge as a team?
• Access and travel, can your people get in and out without turning every trip into a headache?

Sometimes the question is as simple as this, “We are in Northern Nevada often enough, where should we be staying, meeting, and possibly owning property?” It is less about uprooting everything and more about building a footprint that supports the way companies actually work now.

What surprises Washington buyers when they arrive in Reno

People have an old mental image of Reno as a little casino town. That picture is outdated. The biggest surprises tend to fall into a few buckets.

Surprise number one, housing is not “cheap, ” it is value dependent

As we discussed, it can be a lateral move on price, especially in higher price ranges. But when buyers tour the neighborhoods and see the home styles, lot sizes, and the overall feel of different areas, the conversation becomes less about “cheap” and more about “does this fit our plan?”

If you want to start exploring areas, we have a full breakdown of local communities and lifestyle differences here: .

If you want to talk through your situation, whether you are two months out or two years out, reach out to us. We can give you a realistic picture of housing, day to day living, and what surprises most Washington buyers once they get boots on the ground in Reno and Sparks.

And if you want the video side of this, with real on location tours and local perspective, check out the channel.

Conclusion, future planning is the real reason people are looking

The biggest shift I have seen is that Washington homeowners are thinking earlier and more strategically than they used to. They are not panicking. They are planning. They are asking what they want retirement to look like, what they want their money to do for them, and what kind of lifestyle they want day to day.

Northern Nevada is not the right fit for everyone, but for the right person it can be an incredible place to build the next chapter, with outdoor access, a growing food and neighborhood scene, and a lifestyle that can feel a lot less compressed than bigger coastal metros.

If you want to keep learning, comparing neighborhoods, and getting the practical side of what it is like to live here, explore other posts. There is a lot more to Reno, Nevada and Sparks, Nevada than most people realize on a first visit.

Transcript

If you've lived in Washington for years, this video is probably going to hit close to home because more and more people are asking question they weren't asking 5 or 10 years ago. Does it still make sense to stay in Washington? The one thing that surprises people is that most of Washington buyers that we've been talking to aren't leaving because they have to leave Washington, but there's been kind of a common thread that they're looking ahead and asking what they want the next chapter of their life to look like and whether staying in Washington or moving somewhere else makes sense for them. And while there are still many companies like Microsoft and Amazon and Boeing that remaining major parts of Washington's economy, many business leaders are re-evaluating where they want to live, where they want to invest, and where they eventually want to retire. So today, we're going to talk about who is moving, why they're considering Northern Nevada, and what surprises them when they get here, and who should absolutely not move to Nevada and maybe step in Washington. [music] And as always, to help me is Sydney Lesser. So Sid, thanks for coming on as always. And I know we did a video a while back. The video was about that new state tax, the new millionaire tax up in Washington. And when that happened, I think that's when the phone started to ring even more than normal. We started getting a lot of Washington people here. So, with that being said, who are some of the people that are actually starting to call? Who's actually considering and thinking about moving to Northern Nevada? >> Definitely established people who are future planning. So, whether that be retirees, empty nesters, people starting to figure out whether they're going to relocate a business or not, but predominantly it's people future planning towards retirement. So, they're trying to figure out, okay, should I stay in Washington? Can I stay in Washington? Should I potentially look elsewhere? >> And the one thing that was kind of interesting that was new to us is we actually had a couple people that were thinking about relocating their businesses out of the state of Washington. Now, I don't know all the ramifications of the business taxes and the business structure and what's changing in Washington that had people asking about that. I know a lot of people were just thinking about, well, there's this new income tax and like we talk about Washington, Oregon, and California. everything we always hear or stories we hear are those are three of the most expensive states to retire in because between federal and state taxes and some of the other things that they will they will take some of your income on it just becomes conducive for those people to move to some of these other states and that's why you're seeing places like Nevada Idaho Arizona on the west coast where they don't want to go too far you're starting to see more of those but a lot of the people that we're talking to seem like they're more established and they're not quite ready to retire yet but they're sort of in a situation where they're trying to maximize their future income and they're starting to think about these things and so that's kind of where everything started. Would you would you agree or or what what do some of the people we talked to say? >> Yeah, I agree with that and I think a lot of the people that we've been talking to are getting more towards retirement than they are moving a business. Yes, obviously we have a a a person interested in the business aspect. But a lot of people are trying to figure out if I am to retire in Nevada, what is the difference and the benefit of Nevada versus Washington? Because obviously there are certain planes that we can compete with Washington. There are certain planes we cannot. >> Yeah. And we're going to talk about some of those while we're doing this. I know for me, the biggest thing that people are trying to figure out first is where to start looking. And when they start looking, obviously we typically start with the housing piece of it. And it's funny cuz the client that I personally took out to show homes was looking kind of in this million to a million5 range. And I think they were surprised that in their minds, they thought it was going to be a lot less expensive here, but it turned [clears throat] out to be more, at least for the housing itself, more they felt like a lateral move. I disagree. I think here you're going to get larger lot, newer property. There are some benefits here versus a lot of stuff if you're in Seattle, let's say within an hour of Seattle, a lot of that is older properties. So that's where usually we start, but then there's some other things that they they ask about as well. >> For those that are looking towards retiring, they start asking about living on their investments, what that's going to look like when you get to that sort of fixed income portion of your life, what their kind of long-term expenses are going to look like. So obviously the housing is the biggest piece of that. And then they start getting into health care and then from there, like we said in in multiple cost of living videos, we're relatively comparable in terms of gas prices, groceries, things along that line. So, it's just usually the bigger pieces of what they're trying to figure out. >> And I I kind of feel like we get a lot of the same things for people that are coming from California where it's not they're running to get out of these states. They're not trying to leave. They're not trying to make it sound like we hate it where we are. They just know that long-term planning or cost of what might be staying in those states for retirement or things like that's getting very expensive. So they're just starting to look at other options and that's where we're getting more and more of these calls from. So it's not like they're some of them are really leaving and they're pained to be leaving. It's like oh I don't really want to leave but I kind of have to leave. And this leads us right into we had a couple people now like I said relocating businesses and they started asking different questions. What would be some of the questions that some of these business owners cuz some of this we may not 100% know the answers to but they're asking lots of business related questions now >> when they're bringing or potentially looking to bring businesses in. They're looking at, you know, some of the costs. Your operating costs are obviously everything because that's your margin of how you're going to make profit. Depending on what the company is, obviously you have to sort of look at commercial space as well. Where the gentleman we had that was potentially going to move a business here. It wasn't necessarily that the business business was coming. It's we are here often enough as a business. Where can we be when I bring people here? So sometimes they almost treat it like retreat type of things to like where can we centrally locate things to make it easiest for their people because I feel like a lot of companies now obviously are online. So you're working from home. So, it's like where can we converge everybody? >> Yeah. They're bringing like a piece of their business and a lot of their employees now can work remotely. They might be able to stay in a state like Washington or or be somewhere completely different. And again, some of the costs like I know last time I was in in the Seattle area, if you're in those downtown areas, there's lots of open space and commercial space and building space. So, I think it's just they're looking for something a little bit different uh not just for themselves, but for their employees. So, so if you're someone who's thinking about moving to Northern Nevada, do me a favor. Click the link in the description below. We'll get you a copy of our free buyer guide. It'll get you a lot of great information to get your journey started. The biggest thing I I think they they realize is like what surprises them. I still think people have this feeling of us little old casino town that we've been talking about for years now. What are we saying or what are we, you know, thinking that surprises them the most once they actually are here and they start looking around? >> I think the first thing is the housing cost. That is the biggest thing and the first thing that we obviously discuss with them. And like you had said, it's not necessarily going to be an up. It's not necessarily going to be a down. it is a little bit more lateral for some of these people. Um, but it all depends on what you're looking for where if you're in that sort of more million- dollar price point looking at those bigger houses, you do get bigger lots for the majority of them just because of location-wise where they are in Reno. There are differences there, but I think it is the housing price that is the biggest and then honestly geographically how big Northern Nevada actually is. >> It's gotten a lot more that way. I know obviously we we compare our airports to a lot of other airports. Traveling in and out from here, you can get a lot of places. Obviously, Seattle's going to have more direct flights to more cities, but if you've been in the Seattle airport in the last 5 years, it's a disaster. They've been working on it. It's been non-stop construction. It It's a mess up there. And they're sort of landlocked. So, at some point, they can only get as big as they can get. And at some point, they're going to need a second airport somewhere. So, that people can do that whether they go to Tacoma or go a little more north of Seattle, those kind of things. And it's definitely gotten better. I can remember for years flying into Seattle, when you drive from the airport to downtown, it'd be tent city, so they have homeless issues. Like, they're downtown. It's different. But there are lots of things in a major city like Seattle like that we don't have here. So if you like the Seahawks or the Mariners or the Kraken or eventually, you know, we're probably going to see the se the the basketball team, the Sonics come back. There's things that I I know for us it's an hour and a half, 2 hour flight. You can go to Seattle or we talk about a lot of places that you can get to from here and go visit, do the things, and then get back out of there and enjoy those big city things versus living in those areas. I know the other thing with big cities is they start worrying about all the lifestyle things, the food things. Reno has grown a lot in that respect. >> We have, and you and I were talking about this last night, that people often judge us very harshly on our downtown and our Midtown, which to be honest isn't even a fraction of what Northern Nevada has to offer you. Now, major changes have been made between the Riverwalk, a lot of new additions in Midtown. If you haven't been here in a long time or ever, >> come with us. I promise you, go look around, go walk around, go eat at some of the restaurants. Our food scene has changed. will never quite be comparable to these big cities just population-wise. We're just never going to hire. >> Well, and that and that's the funny thing about all of this is that we get judged on a very small part of our town. So, it's funny. You see these other videos and people they just go to downtown, they want to talk about whatever the things are, pros and cons of the downtown and that's it. And there's so much more to Northern Nevada. I know people always want to say, "Well, you guys always want to loop Lake Tahoe in." Well, yeah. If you [laughter] can get there in 30 minutes, that's like saying you live in Seattle. The ocean doesn't count, >> right? >> It's like it's right there. It's part of it. These are all parts of our things where it's not that far away. And trust me, a lot of people are driving 30, 60, 90 minutes that live in Washington to use all the ocean. And again, it's different. The other thing I always talk about with Washington is the weather. I would say 50, 60, 70° in Seattle or in those areas is not the same as it is here. Sea level, ocean, cold versus warm, dry, high altitude. A lot of pros and cons to both of these things. But with that being said, it's just we want people to be aware, especially for those that live in Washington, that are searching out other places potentially to live, that ever since that whole millionaire tax thing started and things started to become a little less affordable for people in Washington, the phone has been ringing. What would be some of like maybe some last statements you might tell people for Washington that need to reach out to us to to ask about? >> Yeah, if you guys are curious about these things, please call us. I mean, whatever it may be, whether you're future planning, retiring, or you just want to kind of say, "Hey, I want a general overview of this." Please do. There there are enough differences between the two states that it is important you talk to us. >> Absolutely. So, if you're someone who's thinking about moving to Northern Nevada, do me a favor. Check out this video we did right here about some major projects that are happening that make Reno a lot bigger and more upgraded than you might