I love California, who doesn’t. The weather is literally so perfect, you start to hate the sun. It’s 70 degrees like 14 months out of the year and everyone you see on the street in Hollywood is basically a made-to-order catalog version of a human.

But people are leaving in droves. It’s amazing, from all over the state, people are evacuating California like it’s the reason for the pandemic. And honestly it might have a lot to do with the state’s response to that particular problem, but people have been calling me from Cali for a handful of other reasons, for far longer than Covid-19 has been around.  Maybe it’s the straw that finally broke the supermodel’s fingernail, you know what I mean?

Either way, Tennessee is definitely a destination, and I want to talk about it. California vs Nashville? Why Nashville won, today on the TNHA YouTube channel. Give us a like and subscribe, and let’s dig in shall we?

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Full disclosure, I lived in LA for a long time. I love that town, and I especially love all the things you get from living there. Mountains 30 minutes up the road, if there’s no traffic, you know cause that happens. The beach, fish tacos, parties and live music – I mean nightlife for days. But I left for the same reason I think a lot of people are. At some point you realize there are very few reasons to pay for the taxation it takes to stay.

Which brings me to my first reason why I think Nashville won the battle….  No income tax. Tennessee is one of 3 states that doesn’t have an income tax, and that means that you get to keep a little more of the Hollywood money you make.  Also, most of the movies and TV shows are now being made in Atlanta – and that’s only about 4 hours away.  3 and half hours if you drive like my wife.  3 hours if you drive like me HEY YO! Just kidding, don’t drive fast, it’s dangerous. But seriously the cost of living overall in TN is just so much more affordable than anywhere in California. Now you might pay a little more in taxes when you go pay for that 64” TV, but it’s not going to make up for the difference between living here versus there.

The second reason I think people are moving here from California is less traffic (for now at least).  I mean there are 81 people a day moving here, there’d be more if there were more houses on the market, and that means the number of people on the road is going up, but we don’t have the same 3 hour rush hour that you have on the 405.  Actually there are only about 2 hours in the day that I was ever able to drive the 405 when I lived there. But that’s really not the case here. If you’ve driven in that traffic, we really have nothing to complain about here. I mean, there’s traffic, and it’s dumb traffic. Like dumb driver traffic, but it’s not “turn your car off and wait for 20 minutes at an exit” traffic. It’s more like, turn on “This American Life and enjoy your latte on the way to work” traffic. I’m a glass half full kinda guy.

Reasons three and four are entertainment and nightlife.  It’s all here, all of it.

Now in the battle of California vs Nashville, does there really need to be a winner?  If you count in Florida or Texas then there’s a big hell yeah because those are two red states gunning for income by flaunting that “no income tax” card as well. Well to this I say, you can’t catch one hog if you’re chasing two.  Or in this case three… what does that mean?  Absolutely no idea, because I only put it in the video because someone said it to me on the phone while I was scripting this video and I thought, “hey I should put that in the video”.  But I will say that if you’re moving here from California, you could probably buy multiple houses here for the price of one California home. I can’t say that about Texas or Florida, at least not in the cities where you’d want to go.

So in opinion, that’s why Nashville won.  We have the industry, we have the glam and glory, the nightlife, but we also have the lower cost of living and hey, that’s what we’re all chasing right?  Make more money, working from home, paying less to Uncle Sam as we go because that’s how we vacation often, isn’t it?

I hope this was delightful and informative.  I’ll see you soon.