Coming Home: Why So Many Californians Are Moving Back, And How to Make the Numbers Work

By Amy DeBusk, Amy DeBusk Home Loans | Gold River, California

The Phone Call I Get All the Time Now

“We made a mistake.”

That’s how a recent conversation with a couple I’ll call Maria and Tom started.

Two years ago, they sold their home in Gold River and moved to Arizona, chasing the math that so many Californians chase: lower home prices, no state income tax, and more square footage for less money.

On paper, it looked like a great decision.

In person, on a 112 degree afternoon, it didn’t feel like one.

“I said to my husband one day, ‘What are we doing to ourselves? We are so unhappy here.'”

Their dogs couldn’t be walked during the day because of the heat.

They missed the trees.

They missed the river.

They missed their friends.

Most of all, they missed home.

The place that kept calling them back was the same neighborhood they used to drive through saying, “Someday we’re going to live there.”

Gold River.

They’re not alone.

Over the past year, I’ve had more conversations than ever with people returning to California after moving to Arizona, Texas, Florida, Tennessee, and other states.

Some left for work.

Some left because they believed housing would always be more affordable somewhere else.

Some simply wanted a change.

But now many are asking the same question:

“Is there a way for us to come home?”

The answer is often yes.

The financing simply needs to fit your life, and that’s exactly what we walk through together, sometimes starting with nothing more than a 30 minute conversation. If you’re at the stage where you’re quietly wondering whether a move home is even possible, you can book a free 30 minute strategy call and we’ll start there.

If you’re buying a home again after several years away, our First Time Home Buyer Guide From Start to Keys is a helpful resource, even for many repeat buyers who want a refresher on today’s mortgage process.

What Maria and Tom Asked Me First, And What I Tell Every Family in Their Shoes

Before we ever got to numbers, Maria and Tom needed to know whether coming home was even realistic. I hear some version of these same questions from almost every family making this move, so let’s walk through them the way I did with them.

Can I qualify for a mortgage after moving back to California?

In many cases, yes, even if it doesn’t look that way on your tax return. Depending on your situation, we may be able to use employment income, retirement income, self-employed income, investment income, the proceeds from selling your current home, or in some cases retirement account assets you haven’t even started drawing from yet. That last one surprises people the most, and it’s exactly what turned things around for Maria and Tom. More on that shortly.

The first step is understanding what loan programs you may qualify for and getting your financing organized before you begin house hunting.

Can I buy a California home before selling my current one?

Yes. Depending on your goals, you may have several options, including a home sale contingency, a Buy Before You Sell bridge program, or using available savings for a smaller down payment and recasting your mortgage after your current home sells.

Can I sell my current home and buy my California home at the same time?

Yes, and this is one of the most common ways relocation clients structure their move. One option is a home sale contingency, where your offer on the California home is conditioned on your current home selling, usually within a set window. Sellers accept this because it gives them comfort that you have a clear path to closing, but it’s worth knowing upfront: sometimes you’ll pay a bit of a premium for that flexibility, either in price or in how competitive your offer looks next to others. We’ll talk more about exactly how that negotiation tends to play out, and how to time it right, a little further down.

What if I’m 62 or older?

A HECM for Purchase (Reverse Mortgage for Purchase) may allow you to buy your next primary residence with a larger down payment and no required monthly mortgage payment, while preserving more of your retirement assets.

What if I don’t have enough equity?

Don’t assume moving back is impossible.

Sometimes the solution isn’t a larger down payment. It’s choosing a different financing strategy, negotiating seller concessions, adjusting your purchase price, or structuring the loan differently.

Which mortgage is best?

There isn’t one “best” mortgage.

The right solution depends on your age, equity, income, timeline, and financial goals.

That’s why every relocation plan I build is customized for the individual family, the same way Maria and Tom’s was. If any of these questions sound like the ones running through your head right now, the fastest way to get real answers is a free 30 minute strategy call, where we run your actual numbers instead of generic ones.

The Boomerang Migration Is Real

For years, the story was simple.

Californians were leaving for Arizona, Texas, Florida, and other states in search of lower housing costs, lower taxes, and a different lifestyle.

Today, I’m seeing another story unfold.

Many are coming back.

Some miss family.

Some miss California’s climate.

Some miss the outdoor lifestyle.

Some discover that a lower mortgage payment doesn’t always translate into a happier life.

As Maria and Tom discovered, a spreadsheet can’t measure what it feels like to take your dogs for a walk on a cool evening, spend time with lifelong friends, or be close to the places that shaped your life.

Relocation is rarely just a financial decision.

It’s a lifestyle decision that requires a financial strategy.

That’s where thoughtful planning can make all the difference, and it’s exactly the conversation Maria and Tom and I sat down to have once they decided coming home was worth fighting for.

This is where experience matters, because qualifying for a mortgage isn’t always as straightforward as looking at a tax return.

The Real Math of Moving Home

Here’s where it gets hard. When Maria and Tom ran the numbers on their return to Gold River, the gap between what they’d net from their Arizona home and what they needed for the home they wanted was about $40,000. That’s not a small number to anyone, and when you’re not used to dealing in six figures regularly, it can feel paralyzing.

But the price gap wasn’t even their first worry. Before we got anywhere near a purchase price, Maria and Tom were convinced they simply didn’t earn enough on paper to qualify for the loan they needed. They’d both scaled back working hours later in their careers, and looking at their tax returns side by side with a typical lender’s income requirements, it didn’t look promising to them.

Here’s what I explained to them, and what most people don’t realize is even an option: between the two of them, they had about $850,000 sitting in retirement accounts. Under Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guidelines, those retirement assets can be used to qualify for a mortgage in more than one way. 

We didn’t need to touch their tax returns or force them into a part-time job. We could document the distributions they were eligible to take from those accounts and count that as qualifying income, and if they chose to increase the amount they pulled out, we could use that higher number too, as long as the documentation showed the account could sustain that distribution rate for at least three years from the date we closed the loan.

It didn’t matter whether the number they ultimately chose was modest or more aggressive. What mattered was whether $850,000 could support it for three years or longer.

That single conversation changed everything for them. They weren’t short on money, they were short on a paper trail that matched what a typical underwriter expects to see. Once we restructured how their income looked on paper, using their own assets, money they already had, not new debt, not a loan against anything, the qualification problem disappeared.

That’s normal. As I tell every client in this position: you deal with these numbers every day in my office, so they feel routine to me. For you, you’re throwing your entire financial life up in the air and hoping it all lands in the right place, and that loss of control feeling is real, even when the underlying numbers are perfectly workable.

The good news is that there isn’t just one tool for this kind of move. There are several, and which one (or combination) makes sense depends entirely on your age, your equity, your timeline, and how much risk you’re comfortable carrying. Let me walk you through each one, the same way I would in a strategy call.

Option 1: The Conventional Loan, Still the Workhorse

For most returning Californians, a conventional mortgage remains the simplest and most cost effective path home. You bring a down payment, often funded by the proceeds of selling your departing home, qualify based on income and credit, and you’re done. No exotic structure, no specialized underwriting.

Here’s what actually goes into building that loan for a relocation client. We start with your income documentation, two years of W-2s or tax returns if you’re self-employed, plus verification of where your down payment is coming from, which for most returning Californians is the net proceeds from selling their out of state home. Lenders want to see that money sourced and seasoned, meaning it’s clearly traceable back to your sale, not a mystery deposit that shows up the week before closing. Once income and assets are verified, your loan amount and down payment determine your rate tier, your loan to value ratio, and whether private mortgage insurance applies if you’re putting down less than 20%.

The part that surprises people most is how small the practical difference is between rate options when they’re a fraction of a point apart. On a loan of a couple hundred thousand dollars, the payment difference between, say, 6.49% and 6.125% is often smaller than people expect, and it usually doesn’t make sense to spend more than a point’s worth of cost to buy a rate down, because the time it takes to recoup that cost is too long to be worth it for most buyers. 

Understanding how today’s interest rates affect affordability can help you choose the right financing strategy.

The conventional loan conversation is really a conversation about structuring the deal around your real comfort level: How much do you want as your monthly payment? Do you want taxes and insurance impounded, or handled separately? Are HOA dues going to replace some of what you’d otherwise pay for insurance?

These are solvable questions. They just take someone walking through every line item with you, not handing you a single number and hoping it sticks.

Option 2: The Reverse Mortgage, Misunderstood, But Transformed

I want to address this one head on, because it’s the option clients react to most strongly, usually with some version of “I’ve always heard reverse mortgages are terrible.”

That reputation is earned, but it’s also forty years out of date. Reverse mortgages in their earliest, unregulated form did real damage. But the program has been federally insured and reformed since the 1980s, and today the HECM, or Home Equity Conversion Mortgage, is the FHA backed version of the product, available to homeowners 62 and older. 

The 2026 HECM lending limit is just over $1.2 million, and how much of your home’s value actually counts toward your loan is calculated using something called the Principal Limit Factor, which weighs your age, current interest rates, and the lesser of your home’s appraised value or that FHA limit. The math is detailed, but the takeaway is simple: the older you are and the more your home is worth, up to that cap, the more equity you can access.

What makes it relevant to relocation specifically is a variant called HECM for Purchase. It lets a homeowner 62 or older buy a new primary residence and set up the reverse mortgage in the same closing, bringing a down payment, typically 40% to 55% of the purchase price depending on age and rates, with the reverse mortgage covering the rest and no monthly mortgage payment required afterward. You’re still required to keep paying property taxes, homeowners insurance, and HOA dues, and to maintain the home as your primary residence, but the principal and interest payment simply doesn’t exist.

Why would someone choose that over simply paying cash from their sale proceeds? Liquidity. A straight cash purchase consumes your full sale proceeds and leaves little financial reserve, while HECM for Purchase lets you put down less and keep meaningful capital liquid for retirement income, healthcare, or whatever comes up. A 72 year old buying a $400,000 home, for example, might put down somewhere between $180,000 and $248,000, with the reverse mortgage financing the rest and no monthly payment ever coming due.

It’s also worth knowing this even if it’s not right for you today. I tell younger retirees, those in their late 60s, like many returning relocation clients, that a reverse mortgage may not be the right tool right now, simply because the math improves the older you get. But it’s a card you can keep in your pocket. Whether that’s a HECM for Purchase down the road, or a reverse second mortgage that lets you access equity without disturbing a great rate on your first loan, it’s an option worth understanding well before you need it. 

Before any HECM closes, federal rules also require a session with an independent, HUD approved housing counselor, not someone who works for me or any lender, specifically so you’re hearing about every alternative before committing.

And critically, HECM proceeds are loan advances, not income, so they don’t affect Social Security or Medicare eligibility, and the title to the home stays in your name the entire time, just as with any other mortgage.

Option 3: Buy Now, Sell Later, Moving Without the Squeeze

The third tool solves a completely different problem: timing. What if the home you want is available now, but your current home hasn’t sold yet?

This is where a Buy Before You Sell bridge program comes in. The structure lets you borrow against your current home’s equity to fund a down payment on the new home, close on the new home, and then once your existing home sells, use those proceeds to pay off the bridge loan. Most bridge programs lend up to roughly 75% to 80% of your current home’s value, minus what you still owe on it, and that gap becomes the cash available for your next down payment.

Asking the right questions before choosing a financing strategy can help you avoid costly mistakes.

It’s particularly suited to families who are relocating and want time to settle into a new city, get situated, and move without the chaos of trying to force two closings to land on the same day, and who’d rather not liquidate investments to bridge the gap.

The advantage isn’t just convenience, it’s negotiating leverage. Because you have cash in hand from the bridge financing, you can make a non-contingent offer, which is far more competitive in markets where sellers are wary of accepting a sale contingent contract. I’ve watched this play out directly with clients: a seller who initially refused to even consider a contingent offer came back to the table once they realized the buyer was prepared to walk, at which point a creative structure suddenly became negotiable again.

But this tool has real trade-offs, and I want to be upfront about both sides. The biggest con is cost. Depending on the program, you’re often looking at a fee of around 2% of the loan amount on top of other closing costs, plus the interest that accrues while you carry the bridge loan. On a larger loan, that adds up fast, and for some clients, once we run the actual numbers, it simply isn’t worth paying that much just to avoid a contingency or to time two closings perfectly.

When a Bridge Loan Isn’t the Answer: The Concord Story

That’s why I always walk clients through an alternative before assuming a bridge loan is the answer: putting down a smaller amount from other funds you already have, like savings, rather than waiting on your departing home to close or paying a bridge lender to access that equity early.

I had a client who relocated to Concord, California from Texas who did exactly that. Instead of using a bridge loan, they put 10% down using money from their savings account, closed on their California home right away, and once their Texas home sold a few months later, we used the proceeds to do a recast on their new loan. That kept them moving on their timeline without paying bridge loan fees at all, and it set them up to lower their payment later without giving up anything in the process.

Recast vs. refinance, what’s the difference? This is a question I get constantly, and the two get confused all the time, but they work very differently.

A recast keeps your existing loan exactly as it is. Your interest rate stays the same, your loan term stays the same, and nothing changes except your principal balance. You make a large lump sum payment toward your principal, in the Concord client’s case, the proceeds from their Texas home sale, and the lender simply recalculates, or re-amortizes, your monthly payment based on that new, lower balance. There’s a small administrative fee, usually a few hundred dollars, no appraisal, no credit check, and no new closing costs. The loan you already have just gets cheaper to carry every month going forward.

A refinance is a completely different transaction. You’re paying off your existing loan entirely and taking out a brand new one, with a new rate, new term, new underwriting, and full closing costs, typically 2% to 5% of the loan amount. A refinance makes sense if you want to change your rate, change your loan term, or pull cash out. But if your goal is simply to lower your payment after coming into a lump sum, and you’re happy with the rate and structure you already have, refinancing is usually the more expensive way to get there.

For my Concord client, a recast was the obvious move. They didn’t need to change anything about their loan, they just needed their payment to come down once the Texas proceeds came in, and a recast does exactly that for a fraction of what a refinance would have cost.

Why we used an interest only product in the meantime. Here’s the other piece of that client’s strategy, and it’s something I don’t see talked about enough. Because they were only putting 10% down, their loan amount was higher than it would have been with a larger down payment, which would normally mean a higher monthly payment too. To manage that, we put them into a 30 year fixed interest only product.

With an interest only loan, your payment for a set period covers only the interest on what you borrowed, none of it goes toward the principal yet. That’s different from a standard principal and interest, or P&I, payment, where part of every payment is chipping away at your loan balance from day one. The trade-off is real: you’re not building equity through your payment during the interest only period, and the loan still needs to fully amortize and pay off by the end of the 30 year term, so payments increase later once principal payments kick in.

But for this client, it was exactly the right tool for exactly this window of time. Their interest only payment saved them about $700 a month compared to what a standard 30 year P&I payment on the same loan amount would have cost. That gave them breathing room during the months between closing on their California home and closing on the sale of their Texas property. 

The plan was never to stay interest only forever. Once the Texas proceeds came in, we recast the loan, which lowered the balance substantially, and from there they had options: stay interest only on the now smaller balance for even lower payments, or move into a fully amortizing payment with confidence, since the balance was already reduced.

That’s the kind of layered strategy I like building for relocation clients. No single loan product solved the whole problem. The combination, a low down payment instead of an expensive bridge loan, an interest only structure to manage cash flow in the interim, and a recast once the old home sold, did. If a strategy like this sounds like what your move might need, this is exactly what we’d map out together on a free strategy call, with your real numbers instead of someone else’s.

“Can I Buy Here Before I Sell There?” Yes, and Here’s How

This is one of the questions I get asked most often by out of state clients, and the answer surprises people: yes, you can write an offer on a California home that’s contingent on selling your home in Arizona, Texas, or wherever you’re coming from. It’s called a home sale contingency, and the fact that your departing property is out of state doesn’t change how it works. What changes the outcome is how the seller perceives your risk.

Here’s the mechanic. A home sale contingency makes your purchase conditional on your current home selling, usually within a defined window, often 30 to 60 days. If your home doesn’t sell in that window, you can walk away from the contract and get your deposit back. For sellers, this is the trade-off: they’re taking your offer off the market for a period of time on the promise that you’ll be able to close. Some sellers will protect themselves with a “kick-out clause,” which lets them keep showing the home and accept a better offer if one comes along, giving you the chance to remove your contingency and proceed, or step aside.

I’ve watched this dynamic play out directly with relocation clients. One couple I worked with wanted a particular home, and the listing agent initially refused to consider any contingent offer at all, full stop. My client’s agent responded the way you’d expect: if the seller wouldn’t accept a contingency, the deal was off. And then something predictable happened. With no other offers coming in on the seller’s home, the agent called back within days, suddenly willing to talk through a 45 day contingency window. Nothing about my clients’ financial picture had changed. What changed was the seller’s read on their own leverage once they realized my clients were prepared to walk.

That’s the part people don’t expect: whether a contingent offer gets accepted often has less to do with rules and more to do with timing and nerve. A property that’s been sitting, a seller without other offers in hand, or a market that’s cooled even slightly can turn a flat “no” into a workable “yes.” This is also exactly the scenario where it helps to have already explored a Buy Before You Sell bridge option, even if you don’t end up using it, because once a seller knows you have another path to close without their cooperation, your contingent offer suddenly carries a lot more weight at the negotiating table.

This is also where that premium I mentioned earlier tends to show up. Even when a seller agrees to a contingency, they’re taking on real risk by accepting it, so they’ll often want something in return, a slightly higher price, fewer credits or concessions on their end, or a shorter window than you’d prefer. It’s rarely a dealbreaker, but it’s something I build into the numbers from the start so there are no surprises later.

If you’re sitting on a home in Arizona, Texas, Florida, or anywhere else and assuming you have to sell it before you can even make an offer in California, that’s not always true. It’s worth a real conversation before you rule it out.

Why Gold River and the Surrounding Sacramento Area Pull People Back

Numbers and strategies aside, none of this matters if the place you’re moving back to doesn’t feel like home. So let’s talk about that part too.

I work with clients moving back to all kinds of communities across the Sacramento region, not just Gold River itself, but also Sacramento proper, Placer County cities like Roseville, Rocklin, and Lincoln, plus Folsom, Granite Bay, El Dorado Hills, and Carmichael. I’ve heard versions of the same story from enough clients now that I can tell you exactly what people are coming back for. Here are ten reasons this area keeps pulling people home.

1. The American River runs right through it.

The American River Parkway stretches 32 miles from downtown Sacramento out through Gold River, Rancho Cordova, and into Folsom, connecting to Lake Natoma and Folsom Lake along the way. Clients tell me this is the thing they miss most when they’re gone, not a postcard view, but a river they can actually get to on a Tuesday afternoon.

2. The bike trail network is genuinely world class.

The Jedediah Smith Memorial Trail, better known locally as the American River Bike Trail, is paved almost the entire way and connects Gold River to Old Folsom, Carmichael, and downtown Sacramento without ever putting you on a busy street. One client told me she walks one of her dogs on it most nights, and after a stretch of feeling unsafe walking dogs in her previous state after dark, that alone was worth coming back for.

3. Mild winters, manageable summers.

Sacramento area summers do get hot, but nothing like the 105 to 115 degree stretches that define a Phoenix summer from June through September. Winters here rarely dip below freezing, there’s almost no snow, and the region averages around 265 sunny days a year. For clients coming back from brutal desert heat, the difference isn’t subtle.

4. Gold River’s planned community design.

Gold River was built as a master planned community in the 1980s and 90s, with 25 subdivisions woven around preserved valley oaks and greenways between neighborhoods. It has a resort style feel that a lot of newer subdivisions elsewhere simply don’t replicate.

5. Safe, walkable neighborhoods.

This comes up constantly with clients. One couple told me they walked their dog at night without a single worry in the world, after years of being nervous to do that where they’d been living. Low crime and well lit, well maintained streets are something people notice the moment they’re back.

6. Access to Lake Natoma and Folsom Lake.

Beyond the river itself, Lake Natoma offers kayaking, paddleboarding, and rentals through the Sac State Aquatic Center, and Folsom Lake adds sandy beaches and bigger water sports a short drive further out.

7. Central Highway 50 location.

Gold River sits right off Highway 50, about a 20 minute drive into downtown Sacramento and 10 miles from downtown Folsom. For clients who need to stay connected to the capital region for work, family, or healthcare, that location matters as much as anything else.

8. Top rated schools throughout the region.

Folsom Cordova Unified and the districts serving Roseville, Granite Bay, and El Dorado Hills consistently rank among the strongest in the Sacramento region, which is a major draw for clients moving back with kids or grandkids nearby.

9. A genuine sense of community.

More than one client has told me it’s not really about the people specifically, it’s the energy of the neighborhood itself, how well kept it is, how mature the trees are, how it simply feels like home in a way that’s hard to put into words until you’re standing in it again.

10. Placer County’s growth and amenities.

Roseville, Rocklin, and Lincoln in neighboring Placer County have grown into some of the region’s most desirable communities, with newer shopping, dining, and family amenities that complement the more established, tree lined feel of Gold River and Carmichael.

A question that comes up just as often once people start touring Gold River specifically: what does that HOA fee actually buy you? I get it, $700 a month sounds like a lot on paper, and it’s a real number we factor into every client’s monthly payment analysis. But in many of the HOA communities here, that fee covers a lot more than landscaping. It typically includes fire and roof insurance on the structure itself, ongoing front yard lawn maintenance so you’re not mowing or planting on weekends, and 24/7 private security patrolling the neighborhood. When you add up what homeowners insurance, lawn care, and that level of security would cost separately, the HOA number looks a lot different than it does as a flat monthly line item. It’s exactly the kind of detail I walk through with every client, because the number on its own doesn’t tell the whole story.

Every Relocation Story Is Different

That’s why there isn’t a one size fits all mortgage solution. Whether you’re returning to Gold River, Roseville, Granite Bay, Folsom, Rocklin, El Dorado Hills, Lincoln, Sacramento, or another Northern California community, the first step is understanding your options and building a personalized plan before the move even starts.

If you’re one of the many Californians who left for Arizona, Texas, or elsewhere and have been wondering whether there’s a realistic way back, there usually is. It just takes someone who can run every version of the numbers with you, the same way I do for clients every single day.

The easiest way to find out where you stand is to talk it through. Book your free 30 minute strategy call and let’s look at your actual situation, your equity, your timeline, and the loan programs that fit, together.

If you’re considering a move home and want to talk through your options, conventional, reverse mortgage, Buy Before You Sell bridge financing, or a lower down payment paired with a future recast, book a free 30 minute strategy call to start the conversation.

Before we answer some of the most common questions, you may also want to explore our Homebuyer Resources, where you’ll find free tools, buyer checklists, educational guides, and planning resources to help you move forward with confidence.

❓FAQs About Moving Back to California and Getting a Mortgage