As you age, in retirement, and income is more fixed, it is a game or what is more important to you. We pay about 5% in state tax, but as it has been discussed here, how much that affects you net, vs your desire to live where you want, plays together to determine if the net cost is worth it.
A few of my neighbors maintain a home in Florida and live there 6 months of the year, because the savings in state tax is worth it to them. My one friend has on the order of $1M/yr income, so his place in Boca, bought years ago when prices were depressed, is already paid for by his income tax savings, and increases his NW every year. They can’t stand FL in the summer, and their kids/grands all live up here so they trek back & forth. Plus they have a mountain/ski place when it’s too hot here and to enjoy the grands there and let them use it in winter. He also worked until he was 66, and has health issues, now at 70.
Roth conversions never made any sense financially for him. But the toll of trekkng back and forth with their health issues seems futile to me. They used to take lavish vacations (twice a year, $100k+ each time), so they aren’t afraid to spend money on what they want, but between waiting for Covid fears to pass and mobility issues, their travel days are over. Just snowbirding is hard enough.
Their kids will inherit a large fortune, but only a part of it is that; knowing their greed quotient, the idea of not making and keeping as much money as possible drives them all the time. Probably the same for some here.
In our case, with our under $120k taxable income, it makes no sense to move anywhere simply to save state income taxes of under $4k in retirement, as property taxes & other costs are low, so the net cost overall makes staying here more sensible especially since we really wouldn’t enjoy living in any of the State Income tax free states. In addition, since my tax burden is so much less now compared to when w*rking, it feels like winning the lottery!
We are in much better health, but in our mid to late 60’s can tell already that time is short in general, especially for remaining travel dreams. We can rent anywhere we want to stay for a few months if desired and not waste the time, energy & costs to maintain a second home. Are the savings ginormous? Heck no, but where $50k is chicken feed to my friend (his tax refund this year was over $70k), it is substantial enough to me that it is worth a few mouse clicks and a safe bet to make savings down the road more likely.