Pacific Northwest movers arrive under the same regional label and carry almost nothing in common. Washington is a no-income-tax state with a new capital-gains tax and property values that free enormous equity; the Texas move is about the house trade and one lurking wrinkle. Oregon taxes income generously — brackets to 9.9% — and rewards every retiree who crosses the state line with a real recurring gain. The same page covers both, because the DFW destination is the same even when the departure is not.
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Talk to a Specialist →| Line | Washington | Oregon | Texas |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retirement income tax | None (no income tax) | 0%–9.9% brackets; partial SS exemption, limited retirement-income deduction | None — OR movers gain $4K–$18K/yr typically |
| The WA capital-gains wrinkle | 7% on capital gains above ~$262K (2025 threshold), excluding real estate sales — but investment portfolio liquidations and business sales trigger it | Taxed as ordinary income | Neither — Washingtonians liquidating investment portfolios in the move year should time it post-domicile-change |
| Property tax | ~0.8–1.1% effective — WA’s low rate (for home-price) means a $900K Seattle home pays ~$8K–$10K | ~0.9–1.1% effective; senior deferral exists | ~1.8–2.5% headline; the Texas freeze and $200K shield pull over-65 bills back to parity on DFW price points — but not on Pacific Northwest price points |
| The house trade | Sell metro Seattle at $700K–$1.1M | Sell Portland metro at $500K–$750K | Buy new 55+ build at $375K–$550K — outright, with five to six figures left over in both cases |
| Estate tax | Yes — $2.193M exemption (2024), rates to 20% | Yes — $1M exemption, rates to 16% | Neither — decisive for Pacific Northwest households with paid-off homes plus retirement accounts |
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Washington’s 2022 capital-gains tax applies to gains above ~$262K (indexed) on investment assets — not real estate sales, which are specifically excluded. For a Washingtonian moving to Texas, investment-portfolio liquidations (funding the all-cash DFW purchase, moving brokerage accounts, Roth conversions) should be sequenced to clear AFTER Texas domicile is established. The real-estate sale can happen before; the brokerage is the timing play. Coordinated with an advisor rather than discovered at filing, this is straightforward — discovered at filing the following April, it is the move’s largest preventable expense.
Both states’ estate taxes follow domicile. The Oregon $1M exemption hits the typical paid-off-Portland-home-plus-retirement-account household almost by design; the Washington $2.193M bar is higher but the Seattle-equity cohort clears it regularly. Both vanish the day Texas domicile is clean. Pair the closing with the estate-plan revision and the over-65 filings and you have executed every line on this page in one organized quarter.
PNW movers are outdoors people and equity-rich, a combination that sorts fast: Elements at Viridian\u2019s lake-and-trails setting is the closest DFW approximation to the green-and-water life they left, Windsong Ranch\u2019s lagoon and trail system is its value-end peer, and Oregon retirees freed from a top bracket often upgrade further into the premium corridor than their PNW neighbors expect. The equity story is uniformly the best in this guide: a Seattle or Portland house funds the DFW purchase outright and leaves a reserve. Start at the total cost table with the capital-gains timing question answered first.
The WA cap-gains timing, the estate threshold, and the DFW shortlist your equity actually deserves — in one coordinated workup.
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