CA state income tax is really not as bad as some people make it out to be. If you are married, the first $537,500 of your income is taxed at a marginal tax rate of 9.3%. However, California's income tax is highly progressive. The first $105,224 is taxed at an effective tax rate of only 4.4%. That's actually below average for many states. Even if you make 250k a year, your effective tax rate is 7.2% (Before any write-off's) For comparison, 43 out of 50 states charge state income tax, and the average effective state income tax rate is 5%.

State income tax is deductible on your federal taxes if you itemize. So if you're in a ~30% federal tax bracket, you'll get to write-off 30% of that 7.2% you paid in state taxes on your federal tax return. So your effective state tax rate would be 5%. Throw in some other federal write-offs (mortgage interest, charity, etc...), and your true effective state tax rate gets into the mid 4% range, depending on your situation, for making 250k.

California's property tax rate is also significantly lower than other states (Roughly 1% of the home value, and can not increase more than 2% annually). You'll find that owning property in California is also quite profitable.

People get all worked up over CA state income tax, but ~4.5% of your income if you make 250k is a very small price to pay for living in CA. It's worth it for the weather, scenery, things to do, beaches, mountains, wineries, you name it.