The Remote Tech Worker Relocation: What Bay Area and LA Professionals Prioritize in a Texas Home

Around 100,000 Californians have moved to Texas in each of the last several years, making Texas the most common destination for people leaving California, ahead of Nevada and Arizona [12][13]. Census-based counts put the 2024 flow at roughly 77,000, while Texas-focused analyses regularly report the flow near 100,000 a year [12]. Remote work is a core reason: the Legislative Analyst's Office reports that about one-third of workers in technology jobs in California now work fully remotely, and studies of the Bay Area find about 28% of paid workdays happening from home as of 2026 [2][1].

What that means for the housing market is simple. A meaningful share of the people buying homes in Boerne, Fair Oaks Ranch, and northwest San Antonio do not commute to an office in Texas at all. They work for California-based employers, or for fully distributed companies, from a home office in the Hill Country. That changes every priority in a home search: sound separation, internet infrastructure, power reliability, and airport access all move up the list, while proximity to an office complex disappears from it.

The median total compensation for a software engineer in the San Francisco Bay Area was roughly $272,000 in 2026, according to Levels.fyi and Blind compensation data [4]. That package is the reason the relocation math works in the first place. A remote engineer who keeps a Bay Area-level package while living in Boerne is effectively arbitraging the two cost structures, and the state income tax column is the cleanest illustration.

California taxes earned income at marginal rates up to 13.3%, and the top bracket rises further with the mental health services surcharge [5]. A Bay Area engineer earning $190,000 pays roughly $15,000 per year in California state income tax. A Los Angeles engineer at $165,000 pays roughly $12,000. In Texas there is no state personal income tax at all, so that line is zero [6]. Federal tax is the same in both states, which keeps the comparison honest and simple.

The salary question everyone asks is whether an employer will cut pay for a Texas location. The honest answer is that it varies. Some companies apply geographic adjustments of 10 to 25% for lower-cost areas; fully distributed companies often do not. Even a 15% reduction on a $190,000 Bay Area salary leaves a Texas engineer ahead on take-home because the state tax column disappears and housing costs are far lower [2][5]. Run the arithmetic for your specific package and your employer's policy before you move, and get the residency timing right with your tax professional, because California taxes former residents on California-source income for a period after the move [5].

For a remote tech professional, the connection is the office. Most demanding remote work, including video conferencing, cloud development, large uploads, and VPN traffic, runs comfortably on 100 Mbps download with 10 to 20 Mbps upload, and fiber is the gold standard because upload and download are symmetric and latency is low [10]. The Hill Country in 2026 offers strong options in the developed corridors, with one caveat: verify the exact address [7][8].

Newer subdivisions built since roughly 2020 are very likely to have fiber, because the developer pulled conduit as part of construction. Older sections of town and rural acreage outside the main corridors are where you need to check. If the dream home is on rural acreage without fiber, fixed wireless and satellite are options, but for daily video-heavy work they are not equivalent to fiber, and I would not gloss over that in a property visit. Ask your agent to verify the provider's address-level lookup before you write an offer [7][8].

In mid-2026, the median sold price in Boerne (78006) ran approximately $597,000 to $660,000 depending on the reporting source, with the HAR figure around $597,000 and the Orchard report near $620,000 [9][10]. Fair Oaks Ranch (78015) medians ran about $620,000 to $780,000, with the spread reflecting the difference between the original sections and newer estate properties [10]. The statewide Texas median was roughly $326,000, which puts the Hill Country premium in perspective [10].

Compare that with what the same shopping list costs in California. A Bay Area engineer's typical home budget of $1.5 million to $2.5 million buys a modest lot and an older structure in expensive metros; in the Hill Country the same budget buys acreage, a newer build, and reserves left over [11]. Even after the higher Texas property tax bill, which runs about 1.8% to 2.5% of value in Kendall County with no Prop 13 cap on a new purchase, the monthly housing cost on a $650,000 Hill Country home sits far below a $1.6 million Bay Area mortgage payment [10]. The homestead exemption, worth $140,000 of school-tax value since the 2025 tax year, trims the Texas bill further [10].

Working from home five days a week is the norm here, and after a few months some remote workers find they want an occasional change of scenery or a meeting room with a professional address. The Hill Country has a small but real coworking scene. OFFICE BOX Boerne at 1415 E Blanco Rd offers desks, offices, and meeting space in town, which is useful for client meetings and for breaking out of the home-office rut [14]. San Antonio, roughly 30 to 45 minutes east, has a deeper set of options for team off-sites and networking [14].

On the social side, the honest advice I give every remote transplant is to plan for the isolation gap. In California your colleagues were your social circle; in Texas they are not. The families who settle in fastest join something in the first ninety days, whether that is a church or faith community, a youth sports league, the local running club, or the volunteer fire department auxiliary. The Hill Country is a place where showing up repeatedly is how you become a local, and it works faster than most transplants expect [10].

If you are a Bay Area or LA remote tech professional ready to start the search, here is the short list I want you to carry into every property visit [7][8][10][11]:

1. Run the address-level internet lookup for fiber before writing an offer. This is the number one surprise-avoider in this entire move.
2. Count the closed offices. One per remote adult, with a door, away from main living areas. Identify which room becomes office number two before you fall in love with a floor plan.
3. Ask about the home's power and backup experience. Texas summers test HVAC and the grid; homes with generators or battery backup are becoming common in upper-end listings, and for a remote worker they matter.
4. Verify the airport logistics. Test the drive to SAT on a weekday once, and confirm which California direct flights exist before you promise your employer a quarterly cadence.
5. Budget the Texas property tax line properly. Homestead exemption filed in year one, appraisal cap applied, and a property tax protest planned for each spring, as our property tax guide for California buyers explains in detail.

My job is to help you match a home to the way you actually work and live, and that includes the details that never make it into a listing photo. Reach out for a no-pressure conversation about the commute time you actually need, the floor plan your family actually uses, and the Hill Country communities that fit both.