If Your Company Moves to Texas Like Samsung, Should You Follow?

Someone in HR will eventually say it out loud. The company is growing in Texas.

For a lot of people in Bergen County this is not a hypothetical. Samsung Electronics America is moving its U.S. headquarters from Englewood Cliffs to its existing campus in Plano, in the Dallas suburbs, by the end of 2026. That is consumer electronics, not the chip plant. The chip plant is a different Samsung, a different metro, and a different house.

Tesla and Oracle did the HQ version of this years ago. A recruiter will send a listing with a four-car garage and a property-tax line that looks like a typo next to Ridgewood.

The instinct is to treat the whole state as a raise. It is not. Texas is cheaper for a Bergen household mostly because the house itself costs half as much and because there is no state wage tax. The income-tax save follows you to Plano and to Taylor. The house price does not. It is not cheaper because Texas property tax is low. That part is a slogan, and the slogan is wrong.

Here is the decision I would actually run before I put the colonial on the market.

Two Samsungs, two Texases

Dallas suburbs (Plano). Samsung Electronics America confirmed it is relocating U.S. headquarters from New Jersey to Legacy Central in Plano, building on a 30-year Texas presence. The company already had a large mobile and network campus there. Korea Times reporting put about 1,000 Englewood Cliffs employees in the relocation conversation. Dallas Morning News later reported 739 Englewood Cliffs workers laid off or given relocation offers, plus more cuts in Plano. The HQ ribbon-cutting in Englewood Cliffs was 2025. The move to Plano is supposed to be done by year-end 2026. This is the Bergen story.

Austin suburbs (Taylor). Samsung Austin Semiconductor's Taylor page still talks about a $17 billion first fab and 1,800 direct jobs. The federal CHIPS write-up is a bigger campus: over $37 billion in expected capital spending, up to $4.745 billion in incentives. Those are not the same number. As of late August 2026 the plant is late construction and trial operations. Samsung's Q2 call still said Fab 1 should start operations this year. Korean industry reporting puts volume production in 2027.

Do not mash the HQ and the fab. One is an office campus next to the Dallas North Tollway. The other is a foundry north of Austin. Your commute, your ISD, and your list price change with the job.

The state income tax factor (this one does not care which suburb)

Texas does not tax wages. New Jersey does. That gap is the same whether HR sends you to Plano or to Round Rock.

New Jersey Gross Income Tax for married filing jointly hits 6.37% once taxable income is over $150,000 (the bracket runs to $500,000). The official schedule for $220,000 of NJ taxable income is $220,000 × 0.0637 − $4,042.50, which is about $9,972. Real taxable income is usually a bit under wages after NJ exemptions, so treat $10,000 as the ceiling on that example.

	New Jersey	Texas
Tax on wages	1.4% to 10.75%. At $220k taxable MFJ, about $9,972	$0
Tax on a W-2 household	You file GIT	You do not
Franchise / margin tax	Company problem (CBT)	Company problem, and only over a revenue threshold
Same in Dallas and Austin?	Yes. The save travels.	Yes. No city income tax on top.

That is the cleanest line on the spreadsheet. It does not require a cheaper house. It does not require a homestead form. It does require that you actually leave. Keep the old house as a "permanent home," vote here, and spend more than 183 days, and New Jersey can still call you a resident. A temporary assignment does not move your domicile. Change the license, the voter card, and the house.

Leave mid-year and you are a part-year resident. You file a regular NJ-1040 for the months you lived here and report income from the resident period.

Sales tax goes the other way: NJ is 6.625% with no local add-on. Texas is 6.25% plus local, capped at 8.25%. Austin and Dallas commonly sit at the cap. You will notice it at the register. You will not notice it next to a $10,000 wage-tax cut.

What the same dollars buy

Ridgewood is not "typical New Jersey," and Plano is not "typical Dallas."

Place	Recent median	When
Ridgewood, NJ	about $1.40 million (Redfin)	3 months ending May 2026
Bergen County single-family	$949,500	July 2026, NJ Realtors
New Jersey single-family	$650,000	July 2026, NJ Realtors
Frisco, TX	about $675,000 (Redfin)	3 months ending June 2026
Austin city	$557,197	3 months ending June 2026
Plano, TX	about $530,000 (Redfin)	3 months ending June 2026
McKinney, TX	about $510,000 (Redfin)	3 months ending June 2026
Austin metro	$448,657	June 2026, Redfin
Dallas metro	$413,761	June 2026, Redfin
Round Rock, TX	$372,787	3 months ending June 2026
Taylor, TX	about $300,000 sold	mid-2026 Realtor.com
Texas statewide	$342,900	June 2026, Texas Real Estate Research Center

A $900,000 to $1.2 million Bergen colonial sits above the county median and below Ridgewood's.

If the job is Plano, you are shopping Collin County. Plano's recent Redfin median is about $530,000 at about $220 / sq ft. Frisco, one town north and a common "keep the schools" move, is about $675,000. McKinney is about $510,000. Richardson's July 2026 MetroTex median was $477,500. The Dallas metro number ($414k) includes a lot of house that is not in a Plano ISD / Frisco ISD attendance zone.

If the job is Taylor, you are shopping Williamson County. Round Rock is about $373,000 at about $203 / sq ft. Taylor is about $300,000. That is the cheaper Texas. It is also not the HQ.

Price per square foot is the blunt version: Ridgewood recently ran about $657 / sq ft. Plano was about $220. Round Rock was about $203. You get fewer rooms per dollar in Bergen, and the rooms are older.

Property tax is not the bargain. The cheaper house is.

New Jersey really does have the highest effective property tax in the country. The Tax Foundation's 2026 profile puts NJ at 1.88% of owner-occupied value. Ridgewood's official 2025 effective rate is 1.944%. Texas statewide is 1.40%. That gap is real. It is also not the story people tell at dinner.

Texas has no state property tax. You pay a stack: school district, county, city, and sometimes a MUD or community college. The actual Texas break is the $140,000 school homestead exemption (current Comptroller figure, not the old $100,000 explainers). Age-65 freezes do nothing for a 40-year-old. The 10% homestead appraisal cap does not start until the January after your first homestead year, so year one is closer to market.

Plano / Collin County (HQ job). Plano ISD's 2025-26 rate is $1.03955 per $100. Add City of Plano, Collin County, and Collin College and a typical Collin County Plano stack is about $1.71 per $100 of taxable value before exemptions. On a $530,000 house, school tax after the $140,000 homestead is about $4,050. City, county, and college on the full value add roughly another $3,500. All-in, a homesteaded Plano median house pencils around $7,500 a year on those 2025-26 published rates, before extras.

Round Rock / Williamson County (fab job). Round Rock ISD is 0.8931 per $100. Taylor ISD is 1.0638. Hutto is 1.2052. A homesteaded $420,000 Round Rock house still pencils around $5,800.

What you pay extra for

Homeowners insurance. The Texas Department of Insurance's 2025 preliminary average is $3,506 a year. Consumer quote studies put New Jersey in the $1,500 neighborhood. Those are not the same dwelling limit. Hail and wind are the Texas tax in both Collin County and Williamson County. Flood is a separate policy in both states. Neither Plano nor Taylor is the Shore.

Electricity. EIA's June 2026 residential rates: New Jersey 24.95¢ / kWh, Texas 15.94¢. Texas still often posts the higher bill because a Texas summer eats 1,300 kWh months. North Texas and Central Texas both have that August. Budget a bigger bill, not a smaller rate.

Cars. Auto insurance studies disagree on which state is worse. Treat it as a wash until you get quotes. Gas is cheaper (late August 2026 AAA: Texas about $3.63, New Jersey about $4.04), and you will drive more miles because the train is gone. Plano has DART / the Silver Line conversation. It is not NJ Transit to Penn.

Daycare. I could not find a clean official 2026 average that I trust. Market sites put North Jersey infant centers and Austin infant centers in a similar $1,600 to $2,200 / month band. A $220,000 household is above typical subsidy cutoffs in both states. Do not move for cheaper preschool.

Schools are an attendance-zone problem

Bergen families are leaving one of the highest-performing public-school ecosystems in the country. Composite rankings still put New Jersey near the top and Texas in the thirties. Demographically adjusted NAEP work from the Dallas Fed argues Texas looks better once you control for who is in the building. Neither number helps you on a Tuesday in August. Shop the ISD.

If the job is Plano (Collin County, TEA 2026):

• Frisco ISD: A, 91 (largest A-rated district in the state)
• Allen ISD: A, 90
• Lovejoy ISD: A, 94
• Plano ISD: B, 85 (22 campuses A, five campuses D)
• McKinney ISD: B, 87

Plano ISD is not interchangeable with Frisco ISD. The listing will say "Plano schools." The TEA letter is public, and so is the attendance zone.

If the job is Taylor (Williamson / Travis, TEA 2026):

• Round Rock ISD: B, 89
• Leander ISD: B, 87
• Georgetown ISD: B, 80
• Pflugerville ISD: B, 81
• Austin ISD: B, 81
• Hutto ISD: C, 75
• Eanes and Lake Travis: A
• Manor / Del Valle: D

Hospitals exist in both metros. What you lose from Bergen is the 40-minute drive to a New York academic center. I would not pretend that is nothing if you have a specialist kid.

A $220,000 household, on paper

This is an illustration, not my closing statement. Dual income, married filing jointly, public school kids, selling a $1.1 million Bergen house, keeping the same salary.

The income-tax line is the same in both cities: about $10,000 a year off the GIT schedule, if NJ taxable income really is $220,000.

The house line is not.

Buy	Price (mid-2026 medians)	Homesteaded property tax, rough	Why
Taylor	$300,000	lowest of the three	Fab town
Round Rock	$373,000	about $6,000 on a $420k example	Fab commute, B-rated ISD
Plano	$530,000	about $7,500	HQ town, B-rated ISD
Frisco	$675,000	higher still	HQ commute, A-rated ISD

Sell: federal principal-residence exclusion is generally $250,000 single / $500,000 married if you meet the two-out-of-five-year tests. Long-held Ridgewood basis can still blow through that. Run the actual number. I am not your CPA, and I did not verify how New Jersey treats a federally excluded gain this year.

The 30-year rate backdrop in June 2026 was about 6.49%. If you take Bergen equity and buy a $400,000 to $530,000 house without levering back up, the payment collapse is the whole story. If you buy the Frisco new-build at $800,000, it is not.

Annual money, order of magnitude, if pay is unchanged:

Item	Direction	Rough annual
NJ income tax gone	save	about $10,000 (Plano or Taylor)
Property tax ~$21,000 to ~$6,000–$8,000	save	about $13,000 to $15,000
ANCHOR lost	cost	$1,000
Homeowners insurance	cost	$1,500 to $3,000 (wide)
Summer electric	cost	hundreds, not tens of thousands
Sales tax 6.625% to ~8.25%	cost	small next to housing
Mortgage if principal drops $1.1M to $0.3M–$0.5M	save	large, if you do not buy back up

The move prints money on house price and NJ income tax if they keep your pay. Plano spends more of the housing save than Taylor does. The income-tax save does not care. A geo pay cut is the thing that can erase both.

What I would do from a Ridgewood deck

I would not move because a LinkedIn post said "no income tax." I would move if the job is real, the pay is the New Jersey number in writing, and I can buy inside a B or A ISD without spending the whole sale.

If the offer is Plano, I would shop Plano ISD and Frisco ISD on the actual attendance map, not the city name, and I would price a $530,000 house and a $675,000 house as two different lives. If the offer is Taylor, I would not pretend Hutto is Round Rock.

I would fly down in August, not March. Sit in a parked car at 4 p.m. Drive the Dallas North Tollway or I-35 on a Thursday, depending on the job. Walk the actual campus, not the rendering. Ask HR whether "headquarters by year-end" means your team still has a desk. Price homeowners insurance on the exact address before you bid.

The shortcut: Texas is a missing income-tax line plus a cheaper house. The first part is the same in Plano and Taylor. The second part is why you still have to pick a suburb. See you next weekend, unless you are already looking at Legacy.

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