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Billionaires are fleeing California for Nevada — and not for the nightlife
Billionaires are planting roots in Nevada amid fears of a California wealth tax.
Nevada, with its generous tax advantages, is welcoming the ultrawealthy with open arms.
The influx of wealthy people is rapidly changing the state’s luxury market.
The most expensive condo sale in the Las Vegas area closed in early January for $21 million. If the sale of the 5,000-square-foot penthouse about 15 miles from the Las Vegas Strip had closed just a little more than a week earlier, it potentially could have saved the buyer a few hundred million dollars.
“He was looking for a while, and at the last minute, there was a little bit of a hiccup,” real estate agent Ivan Sher told Business Insider of the sale. “He was actually even under contract significantly before then.”
That “he” is billionaire Don Hankey, the chairman of Hankey Group and a lifelong Californian worth a reported $8.2 billion.
Hankey is one of a handful of Californians who have decided leave the state due to the proposed Billionaire Tax Act — a bill that would subject California residents worth more than $1 billion to a one-time tax worth 5% of their assets. For someone like Hankey, that’s about $410 million.
“I just felt a little bit like I wasn’t wanted,” Hankey told Forbes of why he chose to leave California.
While Hankey may still be on the hook for the billionaire tax — the bill will be on the ballot in November 2026 and would retroactively tax individuals who were living in California on January 1, 2026 if passed — Nevada has welcomed Hankey and other high-net-worth individuals with open arms.
For the ultrawealthy ready to ditch California, but not the West Coast, Nevada offers a happy medium. With tax perks similar to Florida’s — no income tax and low property taxes — Nevada is slowly becoming the next nerve center for the rich.
Sher, who repped Hankey’s $21 million penthouse sale on both sides as the founder of real estate agency IS Luxury, said that while Las Vegas’ luxury market was already heating up, the news out of California kicked it into a higher gear.
“If people were to ask me what percentage of my buyers were from California, I’d say probably about 25%, and then for the first few years after COVID, that number was closer to 80%,” Sher said. “As soon as that billionaire tax was proposed, the exodus began again — but at a much higher level.”
The Las Vegas metropolitan area had about 331 millionaire households in 2019, according to RentCafe data. In 2023, that number jumped 166% to 879 households.
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