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As talk of a proposed 5% billionaire tax ripples through California, a growing wave of ultra-wealthy Golden State residents is quietly scoping out Jackson Hole as a new home base — not for the sunshine, but for the strategy.
Instead of flocking to Florida, deep-pocketed buyers are zeroing in on Wyoming’s Teton Village, where ski-in, ski-out estates double as both alpine retreats and tax shelters, The Post has learned.
On the ground, developers say the shift has been sudden and strikingly concentrated.
“Almost overnight, we saw definite, multiple buyers from California starting to sniff around our properties,” Bill Caleo, co-founder of the Jackson Home Company, which is currently marketing homes priced from roughly $19.9 million to $50 million, told The Post.
Those buyers aren’t just browsing.
“Clearly, wealthy people are looking at $50 million houses, and the demographic is coming from California,” Caleo said, adding that interest in recent weeks has skewed heavily toward West Coast money.
He estimates that roughly “10 to 12” California-based buyers have been actively touring or tracking the firm’s listings in just the past few weeks — a notable surge compared to prior years, when demand was more geographically mixed.
The homes themselves reflect the caliber of buyer now circling.
One 10,000-square-foot estate in Teton Village is asking $41 million, while another sprawling 30-plus-acre compound is seeking $50 million, and has already attracted “some billionaires” and even “a really big time A-list celebrity,” according to Caleo.
A smaller — but still lavish — $19.9 million ski-in, ski-out home was recently passed over by a California buyer for being “1,000 square feet too small.”
Across the broader market, trophy properties in Teton Village routinely command $10 million to $25 million or more, with multiple listings north of $20 million.
In one telling sign of demand, a $22.5 million home in the exclusive Shooting Star community sold before construction was even complete, never formally hitting the market — a dynamic developers say is becoming more common as urgency builds.
“I think that people are measuring whether they want to change their domicile,” Caleo said, noting that buyers appear to be timing their moves carefully around tax considerations while keeping a close eye on inventory.
The appeal is as much financial as it is lifestyle-driven.
“There’s no state income tax in Wyoming,” Caleo said. “And it’s also one of the best states in the United States to set up a trust … it’s very, very attractive.”
That combination — tax advantages, privacy and limited development — is increasingly positioning Jackson Hole as a haven for those looking to disappear from the spotlight.
“It’s much more conservative, and it’s for a place where wealthy people like to go, because they feel like they could just sort of be incognito,” Caleo said.
The region’s exclusivity is also structural. Surrounded by national parks, large swaths of land are effectively protected from overdevelopment, keeping supply tight even as demand intensifies.
New projects like the Hoback Club — Jackson’s first private ski-in, ski-out residential club — are only adding to the area’s cachet.
And the influx isn’t happening in a vacuum.
Data shows that newcomers to Teton County bring dramatically higher incomes than those leaving, underscoring a broader reshaping of the local economy by top-tier wealth. Meanwhile, ultra-luxury sales in the region have surged, with $10 million-plus deals hitting record levels in recent years.
Big-money investment is also pouring into the state beyond real estate.
A Four Seasons resort in Jackson Hole recently traded for an estimated $650 million, with the deal tied to billionaire Michael Dell’s investment firm, a rep told The Post.
Elsewhere, Wyoming has been attracting major corporate and tech infrastructure plays, including large-scale data center developments backed by companies like Meta — further cementing its status as a business- and wealth-friendly enclave.
Even so, Jackson Hole’s appeal isn’t about flash.
“It doesn’t have the pizzazz of an Aspen in terms of the flashiness,” Caleo said. “It’s much more conservative.”
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