Moving from East Coast to Bay Area: Permanent Move or Not? Legalities, etc... (apartment)

[BulletProofPants]

Hi there,

I have this weird situation where I am moving from Connecticut to the Bay Area. I am not selling my house in CT and I'm having an immediate family member stay in my home. I'm thinking of just keeping the utils in my name and leave everything be (mostly because I want to keep the home owner's insurance as-is). But I am not sure that's a great idea...this is part of the advice I'm seeking.

I am not totally sure if I am going to stay in the Bay Area forever, but it will be at least 1 year. I will be renting an apartment there with my family of 4.

I've got 1 kid in school who will attend the local elementary school in CA.

What I'm wondering is: should I register as a resident of California? Should I tell the DMV and local governments in CT that I moved, and get a new license in CA? What if I am called for Jury duty in CT while I'm gone? How do taxes work out? I'll still get auto taxes in CT if I say nothing....I am so totally confused. I have never moved out of state before and don't know what to do.

Should I just take the plunge and go all-in and tell CT that I moved completely? If I do that, I worry my home owner's insurance company would find out and and cancel my insurance (I'm coastal and getting coastal insurance is nearly impossible now. If I lose it, I'd be screwed if I want to try to get it back.)

Ugh...I have absolutely no idea what to do! Any advice from some people who have done anything remotely similar would be very much appreciated!!

[Savvygal]

I'm in the same boat straddling 2 states. I own a house in WA that I can't sell and live in CA for work. Since I'm paying a large sum of property tax in WA I don't want to become a CA resident and have to pay income tax there too. So according to my accountant we consider our home in CA to be our 2nd home. Everything remains in our WA address. All bill statements, bank accounts, drivers license, auto tags, voter registration etc. you must be meticulous. We send our kids to private school. I did jury duty in WA last summer. It can work but I'd suggest you talk to an accountant for advice.

If its just your insurance perhaps you can "rent" the home to your family and make it a rental home policy?

[BulletProofPants]

Thanks for your reply. After giving it a lot of thought, I think we are just going to go for it and register in CA. The reason for this is because we can't afford to send my kid to private school, and hence, we will need to have a registered address in California. I'll have to get a license and all that, too, since the school obviously requires this.

As far as the house in CT, I will keep the bills in my name and will have a family member house-sit. We can't really get a rental home policy since we're coastal and nobody will write coastal insurance anymore at all. So, we're told we'll be OK as long as immediate family is occupying the house and not paying "rent".

Since you don't live in WA, you don't have to pay any income tax to WA, right? Just owning a home isn't automatically a qualifier to have to pay income tax to the state that the home is owned in, correct?