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Moving from Washington to Fort Worth's west side: two no-income-tax states, one very different deal
This is the subtlest page in the series, because Washington doesn't tax wages either — yet. The comparison lives in capital gains, the 2028 law, sales tax, and above all the house.
The tax picture is converging — from Washington's side
Washington has no wage income tax today, so the paycheck math of a WA→TX move is roughly a wash. What's changed is everything around the paycheck. Washington's capital-gains excise now runs in two tiers: 7% on long-term gains above a standard deduction of roughly $278,000 (2025, indexed), and 9.9% on the portion of gains above $1 million — squarely aimed at RSU-heavy tech compensation. And in March 2026 the state enacted its first broad income tax in nearly a century: 9.9% on income above $1 million per taxpayer, effective 2028 (with a single $1M deduction for joint filers). Real-estate sale gains are exempt from the excise, which matters for the move itself. Texas has none of this — no capital-gains tax, no scheduled income tax — and adds a constitutional prohibition on enacting one. For tech households with vesting schedules, the delta is no longer zero; it's a trajectory.
The daily-cost and housing math
Seattle's combined sales tax is about 10.25% against the corridor's 8.25% — a small, permanent tailwind. The dominant number is again the house: the Seattle-metro price of entry for a family house has hovered around double what this corridor asks. A household selling a King County house (excise-exempt gain) and buying at $425,000 in Willow Park carries the ~$7,200-a-year post-homestead property-tax line computed below — which will likely exceed the King County bill on paper, but on a house that cost half as much, with the 10% homestead appraisal cap flattening the curve from year two. Remote workers should verify fiber first: the address-level internet guide is the five-minute check.
What you give up
Say it plainly: you are trading the Cascades, the Sound, and a mild gray marine climate for big-sky heat, hail season, and flat horizons. Summer here is the winter of Seattle — the season you plan around. No state has Washington's mountains-to-water geography, and this page won't pretend otherwise. What the corridor answers with: sun most of the year, a housing market where a single tech income buys comfortably instead of stretching, school districts that anchor value, and a cost floor — utilities, insurance quirks aside, and services — that gives a family real slack. The right sequence for a Seattle household is in the relocation hub: rent one lease first, buy the district second.
The Texas side of the ledger, computed honestly
Texas has no state income tax — and funds itself instead through property tax, which on this corridor runs from 1.902% of assessed value in Weatherford (Weatherford ISD) to 2.353% in the Fort Worth-in-Parker-County slice of Aledo ISD, with Willow Park at 2.091% and the city of Aledo at 2.056% (2024–2025 published rates; the full stack is on the corridor tax table). On a $425,000 house in Willow Park, the sticker math is about $8,890 a year — but Texas's homestead exemption now removes $140,000 of value from the school portion (raised by the November 2025 constitutional amendment), which cuts roughly $1,690 off that bill, landing near $7,200 a year before any additional city or county homestead percentages. The homestead cap then limits assessed-value growth to 10% a year while you live there. Two more honest lines: Texas home insurance is also among the country's most expensive (the corridor's hail belt is why), and sales tax here is 8.25%. The property-tax filing sequence that makes all of this real is in the buyer's property-tax playbook.
Where this goes next
Start with the which-side directional guide if Fort Worth itself is still an open question, then the relocation hub for the full 60/30/move-week sequence. Renting first? The match quiz sorts the corridor's pockets in two minutes and this month's specials show where the leverage is. Buying? The rent-vs-buy math runs on our observed rent data, the property-tax playbook covers the exemption filings that make the rates above real, and the new-construction guide tracks the Builder Incentive Index monthly. Other origin cities: California · Colorado · Florida · Hawaii · Chicago · New York · international moves.
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The full worksheet edition of this page — the tax math with your own numbers, the pocket map, the 60/30/move-week timeline — plus the monthly report matched to your window.