Cities That Will Pay You To Move There

In 2018 the state of Vermont made headlines with what they boringly called a Remote Worker Grant Program.  The program should have been called the “We’ll Pay You To Move Here, No Kidding Program”.

In a nutshell Vermont was offering $10,000 to anyone willing to move there and work remotely for an out of state employer. 

As this article details:

Vermont budgeted funds to support 100 grants for the first three years and 20 additional workers each year from then on. Grant recipients can receive $5,000 a year over two years and will be chosen on a first-come, first-served basis. These grants can be used to cover moving, living and working expenses, including relocation, computer software and hardware, broadband internet and access to a co-working space.

As of January 2020 the program had awarded all of it’s allotted funds and was not accepting new applications. 

If you’re interested in something like this and feel that you missed out I have good news for you.  You have some options.

 

Geo-Bribery

After Vermont’s program was announced others places started making their own offers. 

Arkansas created a “talent incentive” program to entice people to move to it’s burgeoning Northwest region which has been fueled in recent years by world class cycling opportunities.

The Arkansas Program is offering $10,000 to relocate to Northwest Arkansas in addition to a brand new street or mountain bicycle.  For those misguided folks who do not want a free bike, they’re offering an annual membership to one of the area’s arts and cultural institutions. 

And they even have a nifty cost of living calculator right on the application page that shows how much you’d save by living there as compared to other locations or the U.S. Average as a whole.  They claim that the cost of living in NW Arkansas is 19% lower than the U.S. average, and give details.

 

Geoarbitrage is an incredible tool for anyone hoping to achieve financial independence and who’s willing to use it.  I’ve written many posts about financial topics from a geographic perspective and have an entire geoarbitrage resources page to help narrow down a location.  But now we have places basically bribing you to move there. 

So if you choose carefully you can get the best of both worlds – you can use geoarbitrage to find a lower cost of living place to settle down, and get paid to do so. 

“Does anyone have a list of all of the places making these offers?”, you ask.  Turns out that resource does exist.

 

Make Your Move

The website MakeMyMove.com is a central hub to find places in the United States currently offering incentives to relocate.   As of this post some of the cities that will pay you to relocate are as diverse as Honolulu Hawaii, Augusta Maine, and uh, Baltimore Maryland. 

Yes, that Baltimore, the one I was born and raised in, and almost died in a few times.  Here’s the incentive offer for Baltimore (click for full size):

 

Baltimore, once a city of a million people in the 1950’s, has been hemorrhaging people for years.  Now in 2021 the city has about 580,000 residents, a little more than half of what it did in the 1950’s.  And people keep fleeing, for very good reasons that I won’t get into here.  So it makes sense that they’re trying to attract new residents, they need to keep their tax base up.

My recommendation – a big no-go. 

 

Cities That Will Pay You

MakeMyMove.com is a simple and nifty little site that provides a great resource to anyone looking to start anew and to get financial perks to do so.  I can see this site becoming popular with the LeanFIRE crowd who are always looking for ways to reduce the cost of living, even if that means making a big change. 

Some offers are pretty big.  Morgantown West Virginia is offering a $20,000 incentive package which includes $12,000 cash and another $8,000 of gifts.  It’s part of a larger effort from West Virginia which has a $12,000 offer to move anywhere in the state, as long as you remote work for a company located outside of the state.

Augusta Maine is offering $15,660 in tax credits, and Michigan is offering a $15,000 forgivable grant with the purchase of a new home in it’s Southwest region, a mere 90 minutes from Chicago. 

If you want a brand new home from scratch Ontario, Oregon is offering $10,000 cash towards the construction of a new home.  And the town sits right on the famous Snake River and looks absolutely gorgeous.  Perfect for an outdoor sports junkie like yours truly.  Don’t think I haven’t bookmarked that offer.

The site lets you browse offers by a simple listing, by region, by region type (rural, urban etc), or by incentive type (cash, tax credit etc)

 

Geoarbitrage

So there you have it financial warriors, a great website that consolidates offers from cities and states that will pay you to relocate.  

I post lots of tools like this that show various aspects of money and finance from a location perspective.  If you’re considering Geoarbitrage in the United States this website can help you find a place that will pad your bank account to relocate. 

Also be sure to check out my Geoarbitrage Resources Page that has tons of great tools to help you find your perfect location.

I hope you find these resources handy and I will continue to expose valuable tools that can help when deciding on a geoarbitrage strategy.

Your Turn – Would you consider relocating to a place if the financial incentive to do so was high enough?  How high would it have to be?  Chime in below!

*Accidental FIRE has no affiliation with MakeMyMove.com, financial or otherwise.