California vs New Hampshire
A tax calculator says the difference is $47 a year. Once you count what a dollar actually buys in each, New Hampshire is $3,973 ahead — $39,727 over 10 years.
Property tax is set by counties, not states. Inside Texas alone the rate varies six times over, so this is the single choice that changes the answer most.
Does it work everywhere in New Hampshire?
in what the money buys · $39,727 over 10 years
A pay cut of up to $5,884 (5.9%) still leaves you level.
Who worked this out, and what it is built on
I build and maintain every comparison on this site — 1275 state pairs so far, on the same engine that runs the tax calculators for all 50 states and 3,143 counties. This is not a template with two names swapped into it: California and New Hampshire are run through the actual rules of each place, and if the numbers say the move is not worth it, that is what the page says.
Four sources, and one deliberate refusal. Federal figures from the IRS revenue procedure. State rates read one state at a time off each state’s own department of revenue. County property tax from the US Census Bureau. Cost of living from the Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parities, 2024 — and not from Numbeo or any other crowd-sourced index, because those are filled in by users, publish no methodology, and cannot be cited. That single choice is most of why the cost-of-living numbers here differ from everybody else’s.
When I get something wrong I publish the correction with the date and what it cost — including the two mistakes on these pages I found myself. Data last verified September 1, 2026.
Where to go from here
Almost nobody is choosing between exactly two places. These are the questions that usually come next, with the answer already attached so you can see which is worth opening.
Other moves involving California or New Hampshire
States that sit near New Hampshire on prices compared against California, and the mirror of that. The comparison you would run next.
- California vs Connecticut— Connecticut by $1,277
- California vs Florida— Florida by $9,310
- California vs Maryland— Maryland by $381
- Hawaii vs New Hampshire— New Hampshire by $2,709
- District of Columbia vs New Hampshire— New Hampshire by $3,473
- New Hampshire vs New Jersey— New Hampshire by $7,558
Each state on its own
The full detail behind each half of the comparison above.
The counties that decide it
Property tax is set by county, and the spread inside one state beats most state pairs.
- Trinity County, California— 0.54%, the cheapest
- Kern County, California— 0.91%, the dearest
- Carroll County, New Hampshire— 1.06%, the cheapest
- Sullivan County, New Hampshire— 2.38%, the dearest
Similar in price to California
States that sit next to California on the price index — often the comparison people should have run.
- Hawaii— 110 on prices
- District of Columbia— 109.9 on prices
- New Jersey— 108.8 on prices
- Every California comparison— all 50
- Every New Hampshire comparison— all 50
- The nine states with no income tax— and what they charge instead
New Hampshire has no income tax, and against California that is worth only $47 — here is where it goes
New Hampshire does not levy a state income tax. That single fact drives most of the traffic between these two states, and taken alone it implies a saving of $5,055 a year on $100,000 — what California would have taken.
The actual change in take-home is $47, because New Hampshire charges more property tax: $7,920 against $2,818 on a $400,000 home. States without an income tax raise the money somewhere, and the somewhere is usually your house. Then prices move it again — 110.7 against 104.2 on the official index — leaving a real difference of $3,973 a year in favour of New Hampshire, 83.8× the nominal figure.
Where the two sit nationally: California is the 1st most expensive place to live of the 51 — the 50 states and the District of Columbia — and New Hampshire is 9th. Housing, the component that moves most, is 154.3 against 114.9.
Grey columns are what a year of California and a year of New Hampshire are worth in the same money. The bars between them are each thing that changes, in the order it changes: green adds, amber takes away.
Where the money actually goes, line by line
Five separate taxes, and on this pair property tax is the biggest single difference — $5,102 against $5,055 for the income tax everybody quotes:
Federal income tax — $13,170 either way. Identical, because it is federal. Any comparison that shows a difference here is wrong.
FICA — $7,650 either way. Also federal, also identical.
State income tax — $5,055 in California, $0 in New Hampshire. New Hampshire does not levy one at all, which is the fact that sells the move — and, as the next line shows, not the fact that decides it.
Property tax — $2,818 in California, $7,920 in New Hampshire on a $400,000 home, at each state's median local rate. This is bigger than the income tax difference, and it runs the other way — which is the whole reason the headline number disappoints.
Local income tax — zero on both sides. New Hampshire has none at any level, state or local — and that holds for all nine states without a state income tax, none of which lets a county or city levy one either. The two go together.
Total: $28,693 in California against $28,740 in New Hampshire — 28.7% and 28.7% of gross.
And California housing costs 34.3% more
The cost of living gap between California and New Hampshire is almost entirely a housing gap, and that is only visible because the Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parity publishes its components separately rather than as one blended number. 100 is the national average.
Cheaper in New Hampshire than CaliforniaDearer in New Hampshire than California
Each bar is how far apart California and New Hampshire are on that component, and which way. Housing almost always runs several times wider than everything else — which is why a single blended index tells you very little.
All items — 110.7 in California, 104.2 in New Hampshire. A gap of 6.5 points.
Housing — 154.3 against 114.9. A gap of 39.4 points, 6.1× the headline gap. This is what people mean when they say somewhere is expensive.
Goods — 106.1 against 98.6, 7.5 points apart — 5.3 times narrower than the housing gap — and typical: across all 1,275 pairs the median is 2.7 points for goods against 24.9 for housing. Blended into one figure, what you are reading is mostly housing wearing a general label.
Utilities — 158.9 against 133.7. 25.2 points, the second widest component after housing on this pair, and large enough to matter to anyone heating or cooling a big house.
Which half of this reaches you depends on whether you buy. Renting, the real difference between California and New Hampshire is $9,028 a year — property tax comes out of your side entirely, and what is left is the price level. Buying a $400,000 home it is $3,973. So renting is where the gap is widest here, by $5,056 — unusual, and it means buying erodes the advantage rather than compounding it.
The number to take into a salary negotiation: $94,116
This is the question people are actually asking and almost nobody answers: what would I need to earn in New Hampshire to live exactly as well as I do on $100,000 in California?
$94,116. That is 5.9% less than you earn now. You could take a pay cut of $5,884 moving to New Hampshire and be no worse off — which is a very different conversation to have with a recruiter than "New Hampshire has lower taxes".
The dashed line is the salary you earn now. The solid line is what matches it in New Hampshire. If the relationship were a simple multiplier the two would be parallel — they are not, because brackets, the Social Security ceiling and a property tax that does not move with income all bend it.
The shortcut happens to land here: scaling by the ratio of price levels gives $94,128 against a true $94,116, $12 apart. A coincidence of these two price levels at this salary rather than a rule — on most of the other 1,274 pairs the same shortcut is out by thousands.
The figure belongs to the two states and your income. On $40,000 the match in New Hampshire is $43,366, 8.4% above what you earn; on $250,000 it is $214,770, 14.1% below. The relationship bends by 22.5% across that range.
Over 10 years: $39,727
At $3,973 a year, 10 years in New Hampshire comes to $39,727 — and the county choice inside New Hampshire is worth $52,816 over the same period. Both are real; only one of them is in the headline.
At $3,973 a year of real difference, 10 years in New Hampshire instead of California is worth $39,727 in today's purchasing power — before compounding anything you might invest it in.
The line starts below zero because moving costs about $15,000 and lands entirely in year one. It takes until year 4 for the move to pay for itself. That is the figure a per-year comparison hides.
The first slice of it is not yours, though. Reckoning $15,000 for removal, fees and selling costs — this page's assumption, not a sourced figure — at $3,973 a year it takes 3.8 years to earn back, so a stay shorter than that loses money on a move the annual figure calls a win.
At three horizons: $11,918 over three years, $39,727 over 10, $119,180 over thirty — and the three-year figure does not clear the cost of getting there.
None of those figures contains the one variable that could overturn them: the same job rarely pays the same in California and New Hampshire. That is what the $94,116 break-even above is for — it prices an offer instead of assuming the offer is identical.
Choosing the county matters more than choosing the state here
This comparison is worth $3,973 a year. Choosing where inside New Hampshire to live is worth $5,282 a year on the same $400,000 home — 1.3 times as much.
New Hampshire has 10 counties and the effective property tax rate runs from 1.06% in Carroll County to 2.38% in Sullivan County. Move to the wrong county in the better state and you have given back more than the move gained you, twice over.
Which reframes the question. Rather than "California or New Hampshire", the decision that carries the money is which county inside New Hampshire — and the answer is not visible on any comparison that stops at the state line. Set both in the calculator above and every figure on this page recomputes on your actual rates rather than two medians.
The same logic applies to the losing side: California has counties cheaper than the median used here too, and for a reader who is staying put, moving county at home may be the better version of this decision.
You could take a $5,884 pay cut to move to New Hampshire and be no worse off
That is the version of this comparison worth taking into a negotiation, and it is not a figure any tax calculator produces.
Matching your $100,000 standard of living in California takes $94,116 in New Hampshire — 5.9% less than you earn now. So an offer of $94,116 is not a downgrade, and an offer above it is a raise however it looks on paper.
The reverse framing is the one recruiters use, and it is worth being able to answer: a company in California offering to match your current salary is offering you less than the New Hampshire job at $94,116. On 10 years the difference is $39,727.
Where every number here comes from
Four sources, each read off the body that publishes it:
US Bureau of Economic Analysis — Regional Price Parities by State and Metro Area, 2024 (released 19 February 2026) — read 2026-09-08. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area
IRS — Revenue Procedure for the tax year (federal brackets, standard deduction and FICA) — read 2026-09-02. https://www.irs.gov/
Each state's own department of revenue (state income tax rates and deductions), verified one state at a time — read 2026-09-02. https://estimatetax.net/sources/
US Census Bureau, American Community Survey (county effective property tax rates) — read 2026-08-31. https://data.census.gov/
The cost of living index is the part worth checking, because it is where comparison sites usually reach for something crowd-sourced. The Regional Price Parities are produced by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, cover every state and metro area, and are published with a methodology document. The figures here are the 2024 release and are not extrapolated forward.
And what this page does not model:
— The cost of living index is the BEA's Regional Price Parity for 2024, the most recent published. It is not extrapolated to the current year, and it is a state-wide average — inside a state, a metro area and a rural county differ by more than most state pairs do.
— Moving costs, state transfer taxes on buying a home, and the cost of selling the one you have are not included. On a short stay they can outweigh every annual difference on this page.
— Sales tax is not modelled. It is inside the BEA index — that is what a price parity measures — but it is not broken out separately here.
— The comparison assumes the same salary in both places unless you change it. In practice a job in a high-cost state usually pays more, which is exactly what the break-even figure is for.
— Health insurance, childcare and car insurance vary enormously by state and are only inside the index as averages. If any of the three is a large part of your budget, it deserves its own arithmetic.
Where to go next
Questions
- Is it cheaper to live in California or New Hampshire?
- New Hampshire, by $3,973 a year in real purchasing power on $100,000 with a $400,000 home. The take-home difference is only $47; the rest comes from the cost of living, where California indexes at 110.7 and New Hampshire at 104.2 against a national average of 100.
- How much do I need to earn in New Hampshire to match $100,000 in California?
- $94,116 — 5.9% less than you earn now, so a pay cut of up to $5,884 still leaves you level. That accounts for federal tax, FICA, state tax, property tax and the price level in each state.
- What are the taxes in California vs New Hampshire?
- On $100,000: state income tax of $5,055 in California against $0 in New Hampshire, and property tax of $2,818 against $7,920 on a $400,000 home at median county rates. Federal tax and FICA are identical in both — $13,170 and $7,650 — so any comparison showing a difference there is wrong.
- Does New Hampshire really have lower property tax?
- That depends entirely on the county, which is why a state-level answer is not much use. New Hampshire runs from 1.06% in Carroll County to 2.38% in Sullivan County — 2.3 times, or $5,282 a year on a $400,000 home. The median is 1.98%.
- How much is the difference over 10 years?
- $39,727 in today's purchasing power, at $3,973 a year. That excludes moving and housing transaction costs, which land in year one and can outweigh everything else on a short stay.
- Where does your cost of living data come from?
- The Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parities for 2024, an official index covering every state and metro area with a published methodology. Not a crowd-sourced database — and it comes broken into housing, goods, utilities and services, which matters because housing moves several times more than anything else.