The tech boom in many Western cities is attracting a robust pool of skilled workers, prompting economic growth, and the highest home price appreciation in the nation.
According to Nela Richardson, chief economist at Redfin, taxes may be prompting many Americans to move out West to buy a home. "The East Coast has some of the highest tax rates in the country," she says, "Not just property, but also income taxes, and now with the new the tax changes, you can only deduct up to $10,000 on state and local taxes, so that's a doubly whammy." Washington state, home to scorching market Seattle, has no income tax, and California's Proposition 13 reduced property tax rates, CNN reports.
"Everything from the Rocky Mountain states and west from there are doing much better than the rest of the country and it's been like that quite consistently," said Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors. Seattle, Las Vegas and San Francisco are leading the way with annual double-digit home price gains in March, according to the latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices. Nationwide, price rose 6.5 percent during that period.
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