The US Towns That Pay You to Move There

A remote worker in Tulsa can pocket $10,000 for signing a one-year lease and showing up. In Texarkana, the package tops $18,900, and movers get to pick which state line to live on. Across the middle of the country, chambers of commerce and county foundations are writing checks to fill empty houses and slow decades of population loss. The offers below are all active, all verifiable, and all aimed at the same problem: getting people to try a smaller place and stay.

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Tulsa Remote wrote the playbook everyone else now copies. Launched in 2018 with backing from the George Kaiser Family Foundation, the program hands qualifying remote workers a $10,000 grant to relocate to the city and stay for at least a year. More than 4,000 people have taken the deal, and one study calculated a $4 return to existing residents for every dollar spent. Applicants must be 18 or older, hold a full-time job for an employer outside Oklahoma, and complete a short interview before approval. Homebuyers receive the grant as a lump sum after closing; renters get monthly disbursements plus a three-year membership at a downtown coworking space. Recipients also plug into one of the largest remote-worker networks in the country, which is the part that convinces people to renew the lease.

Topeka, Kansas

Choose Topeka runs on an unusual mechanism. Rather than paying the mover directly, the program has the new employer make the payment, then reimburses that employer for half the following year. The full package reaches $15,000 for a home purchase and $10,000 for renters, tiered by whether the job is local or fully remote. To qualify for the employer-match track, applicants take a position with a Shawnee County employer. The program has drawn transplants from New York and San Francisco earning an average of about $80,000, and it counts veterans and former Topeka residents among its eligible groups, which sets it apart from the remote-only offers elsewhere on this list. Housing costs run roughly 10% below the national average, so the check stretches further once the mover arrives.

Fond du Lac, Wisconsin

At the southern tip of Lake Winnebago, Fond du Lac became the first Wisconsin community to join the MakeMyMove platform. The package totals up to $9,500, built around a $5,500 cash stipend plus roughly $4,000 in local memberships and experiences: a YMCA membership, golf packages, arts passes at the Thelma Sadoff Center, and VIP access to the Dock Spiders ballpark. Applicants must be at least 18, currently live outside Wisconsin, earn a household income of $55,000 or more, and commit to a year in Fond du Lac County. A remote track and a local-employment track run in parallel. The chamber launched the effort to counter a workforce shortage and an aging population, aiming squarely at younger workers and families willing to trade a big metro for a lakeside city of about 44,000.

Noblesville, Indiana

North of Indianapolis on the White River, Noblesville offers one of Indiana's largest packages at up to $15,000. The cash core is a $5,000 relocation grant, paid $2,500 in the first month and $2,500 after a year, with the balance made up of chamber and coworking memberships, golf, and community perks. Eligibility is stricter than most: applicants earn at least $80,000, live outside Indiana, are 18 or older, and can move within six months while keeping their current job or clients. The city has run the program through MakeMyMove since 2022, and movers have arrived from California, Colorado, and Alabama, many purchasing homes averaging around half a million dollars. Ruoff Music Center, one of the Midwest's largest outdoor amphitheaters, books major touring acts through the summer.

Hutchinson, Kansas

An hour northwest of Wichita in Reno County, Hutchinson stacks incentives to about $15,500. The structure splits into a $5,000 cash relocation incentive and a separate $5,000 for new homebuyers, plus a free chamber membership, breakfast with city leaders, and the classic welcome-to-the-neighborhood casserole in an Apron Strings dish. The town's draw is genuinely odd in the best way. The Cosmosphere holds the largest combined collection of US and Russian spaceflight artifacts in the world, including an Apollo command module, and at Strataca, visitors descend 650 feet underground into a working salt mine carved from a 275-million-year-old deposit. Both branches of the program, remote and in-person, come with cash, which widens the pool of who can apply.

Richmond, Indiana

Right on the Indiana-Ohio border in Wayne County, Richmond sits within reach of Dayton, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis. Its Welcome Home package totals up to $7,500, anchored by a $5,000 relocation grant and rounded out with chamber and coworking memberships, a wellness stipend, and community resources. The city and county approved the MakeMyMove partnership to recruit higher-earning remote workers who can strengthen the local tax base, with a target of professionals bringing full-time jobs or their own client rosters. Earlham College and Indiana University East keep a college-town texture downtown, and the Cardinal Greenway trail runs through the area for cyclists and walkers. Prospective movers should confirm current availability directly, since the incentive fulfillment has at times been waitlisted.

Paducah, Kentucky

Paducah built its Remote Workers Incentive Program to reverse a declining population, and it leans hard on culture rather than raw dollars. The cash award is $5,000, paid in two $2,500 installments: one when the mover establishes residency, the second after a year. Around that sits a one-year waiver of the city's 2% payroll tax, an internet stipend of up to $70 a month, and free tickets to the Paducah Symphony Orchestra, the Paducah School of Art and Design, and the River Discovery Center. The appeal fits the town. Set at the confluence of the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers, Paducah is one of just nine UNESCO Creative Cities in the country, an honor rooted in its quilting tradition and the National Quilt Museum downtown.

Salina, Kansas

Salina's Find Balance in Salina program offers up to $6,500 and, unlike the remote-only offers, has expanded to recruit teachers, nurses, and other in-person workers alongside telecommuters. The State of Kansas and the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce sponsor the package, which pairs a cash incentive with downtown cultural perks and a pair of local guides who help newcomers settle. Movers commit to at least a year in the community. Three-bedroom homes commonly list under $250,000, and the downtown has drawn a small creative revival, with Main Street, grain silos, and summer festivals giving the town more visual character than the surrounding plains suggest. For a household relocating from a coastal market, the math on housing tends to close the deal on its own.

Texarkana, Texas and Arkansas

Texarkana is one city split down a state line, and its REDI Set Move program treats that as the selling point rather than a technicality. The package tops $18,900, one of the largest anywhere. The cash core is $5,000, joined by a 25% tuition discount and a free class at Texas A&M University-Texarkana, a year at The Assembly Line coworking space, a Leadership Texarkana membership, and breakfast with city leaders. Applicants earn at least $60,000, live outside the Texarkana region, and relocate to Bowie County, Texas, or Miller County, Arkansas, within six months. Which side matters: the Texas half has no state income tax, while the Arkansas half runs a lower cost of living. The downtown State Line Post Office, the only US post office standing on a state boundary, sits at the seam.

Lincoln, Kansas

Lincoln County, in north-central Kansas, runs the most homesteader-flavored offer on this list. New residents receive $4,500 in cash, a $500 high-speed internet credit, a year at Post Rock Fitness, a monthly dozen farm-fresh eggs, and, for those who build, a free lot within the city of Lincoln. A spouse or partner who lands a qualifying local job adds another $5,000. Because the county sits in a Rural Opportunity Zone, eligible movers also qualify for a 100% Kansas income tax credit through the 2026 tax year. Applicants work remotely, earn at least $50,000, live outside Kansas, and relocate within six months. When the county first asked remote workers to apply, roughly 1,000 people responded, and early movers arrived from Atlanta, Dallas, and Memphis chasing lower costs and quiet.

Mayfield, Kentucky

Mayfield's recruitment carries weight the others do not. On December 10, 2021, an EF-4 tornado tore through the western Kentucky city, killing 24 residents and destroying much of downtown. The relocation program is part of the rebuild. Run for Mayfield and Graves County through MakeMyMove, it totals up to $8,800, built on a $5,000 cash award plus perks tuned to families: 50% off Y's Guys After School Childcare, a monthly dozen local eggs, lunch with the mayor, and a community tour with local leadership. Applicants come from out of state and work remotely. The offer functions as both an incentive and a signal, an invitation to help repopulate a downtown that volunteers and residents have spent years bringing back.

Macon, Georgia

At the geographic center of Georgia, Macon launched Choose Macon in 2025 to bring in 10 new households a year. The package reaches about $7,000, with a $2,500 cash stipend at its core plus downtown parking passes, a gym membership, a three-month coworking membership, and gift cards to Macon restaurants. Applicants earn a household income of at least $65,000 and move from outside Macon-Bibb and its surrounding counties, either working remotely or taking a local job. The pitch rests on momentum: more than $950 million in public and private money has gone into downtown revitalization over two decades, and new restaurants, breweries, and shops now line Cherry Street and Cotton Avenue. Housing costs run well below Atlanta's, and the program drew hundreds of applications within weeks of opening.

Weighing the Offer

The dollar figures make the headlines, but they rarely tell the whole story. A $10,000 grant in Tulsa or a $4,500 check in Lincoln County goes further against local housing than a larger sum would in a coastal market, and several programs layer in tax breaks that outlast the initial payment. Read the fine print carefully. Most require a full year of residency, many pay in installments tied to milestones rather than up front, and income thresholds and out-of-state rules vary widely by community. The perks that look like garnish, the coworking memberships, welcome dinners, and neighbor introductions, are often the part that decides whether a mover renews the lease. These places are betting that the cash gets people through the door and the community keeps them there.