Your retirement move deserves a full, honest report.
Whatever’s driving the move — grandchildren, cost, better doctors, warmer winters — RetireMove puts every number in one place. What you’d pay, what you’d save, what you’d give up, and how long the move takes to pay for itself. Free, fully sourced, no account.
No black-box algorithms. No gated estimates. No email required. Every figure comes from a public federal or state source, and we show you which one.
Your Move Report — New Jersey to North Carolina
Generated · retiremove.com · Estimates only — not tax, legal or investment advice.
Your Move Report
Built to be read by someone other than you — take it to your family or your advisor. The link carries all of your figures.
Your move, line by line
County rates are US Census ACS 5-year estimates of what current owners actually pay — not what a new buyer will pay. In states that reassess at the purchase price or cap increases for long-time owners (California’s Prop 13, Florida’s Save Our Homes), someone moving in is assessed at market value and will usually pay materially more than the county median suggests. Treat the county figure as a floor, not a quote.
Housing is excluded from this adjustment — it's already reflected in your property tax and home insurance figures above. Cost of living is compared on goods and services only, using BEA Regional Price Parities (2024), where the US average = 100.
New Jersey
- New Jersey exempts Social Security entirely, and Social Security is not part of the New Jersey gross income used for the exclusion test.
- The threshold test uses New Jersey gross income, which can include items this calculator does not collect — your real figure may be higher than the one we test against.
- The exclusion also applies to taxpayers who are disabled under Social Security rules. We gate on age only and do not model disability.
North Carolina
Tax & Insurance Composition
Annual dollarsHover or tap any figure below to see what is in it and where it comes from.
Lowest total annual cost for your profile
Top 10 of 50| # | State | Income tax | Property | Sales | Cost of living | Total annual costSorted by this |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Nevada | $0 | $2,052 | $2,637 | −$2,280 | $3,357 |
| 02 | Tennessee | $0 | $1,953 | $3,075 | −$2,886 | $3,634 |
| 03 | Wyoming | $0 | $2,588 | $1,779 | −$2,122 | $3,841 |
| 04 | Delaware | $3,861 | $2,084 | $0 | −$1,879 | $5,169 |
| 05 | South Dakota | $0 | $5,013 | $1,955 | −$3,535 | $5,189 |
| 06 | Mississippi | $1,161 | $2,961 | $2,259 | −$2,731 | $5,557 |
| 07 | Georgia | $162 | $3,497 | $2,397 | −$2,150 | $5,560 |
| 08 | Kentucky | $1,509 | $3,456 | $1,920 | −$2,572 | $5,673 |
| 09 | Arizona | $1,823 | $2,124 | $2,726 | −$1,724 | $5,967 |
| 10 | Alaska | $0 | $4,919 | $582 | −$323 | $6,306 |
| 45/50 | New JerseyYour current state | $1,720 | $8,438 | $2,112 | — | $13,686 |
What is in this ranking: sorted by total annual cost — state income, property and sales tax, plus the average annual homeowners insurance premium, adjusted for the cost of goods and services relative to your current state. Every state is costed on your target home value using its statewide effective property tax rate, so the figures are comparable across rows — a county choice above changes only the two states you are comparing, not this table. Homeowners insurance is the average annual premium from the NAIC Homeowners Insurance Report, 2022 data — it is three years older than the tax rules above and premiums have risen since. Cost of living compares goods and services only, using BEA Regional Price Parities (2024); housing is excluded because it is already counted in property tax and insurance. Rows marked “tax only” are missing an insurance premium or a parity figure, so they are not a like-for-like comparison.
Methodology: simplified 2026 state income tax rates applied after standard deduction; Social Security and retirement income exemptions applied per state rules; effective property tax rates sourced from U.S. Census ACS county averages; combined state + average local sales tax rates from the Tax Foundation. Estimates only — consult a tax professional before relocating.
Sources
Every figure in Your Move Report comes from one of the datasets below. Full method notes are published at retiremove.com/methodology.
- State income, Social Security, pension and sales tax rules — state revenue departments and the Tax Foundation — 2026 tax year
- Effective property tax rates by county — U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey — 2023 five-year estimates
- Florida county millage and taxable values — Florida Department of Revenue Data Portal — 2025 final rolls
- Homeowners insurance premiums — NAIC Homeowners Insurance Report, with 2026 market ranges from Insurify and AARP where they disagree — 2022 NAIC; 2026 market ranges
- Cost of living — U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parities, goods and services only — 2024
- Senior freezes, homestead exemptions and assessment caps — state statutes and revenue department forms cited on each panel — verified 2026
- Moving, commission, closing and transfer tax assumptions — RetireMove constants table — reviewed annually
- Capital gains — IRS Publication 523, Section 121 exclusion — 2026
- County climate normals — NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information — 1991–2020 normals
- Hospitals and clinicians — HRSA Area Health Resources Files and CMS provider files — 2024–2025
- Culture venues — Overture Maps Foundation (CDLA-Permissive-2.0); arts nonprofits — National Center for Charitable Statistics, Urban Institute (ODC-BY 1.0) — 2025
- County population and geography — U.S. Census Bureau Gazetteer and population estimates — 2025
Health care, climate and culture are county figures, not state ones — two counties in North Carolina can be very different places.
What it would actually be like to live there
Taxes are one reason people move. Hospitals, museums, winters and grandchildren are the others. Every figure below is sourced, and nothing here is blended into a score.
- Climate
- Health care
- Culture
- Family proximity
Pick a county in North Carolina in the "Which counties?" box directly above — the second dropdown — and the health care, climate and culture panels will fill in.
Everything else worth knowing before you go
The figures above are a starting point. These guides break down each piece of the picture state by state.