Cash Grants, Student Loan Payoffs, Free Land Just For Moving To Our City

Sure, the headline sounds like something you may have seen many times in your spam emails, but this story looks like it's good for being the real thing.

That of communities across the US that are offering incentives to move there.

As the average age of US Citizens increases and the national birth rate declines the average age for Americans is becoming higher and higher each year.

The Zillow Group reports from rural areas are:

its share of the total population has declined, falling from 54 percent in 1910 to just 19 percent in 2010. This is due in part to outmigration to urban cores, especially by younger generations and the middle class

Since the young and middle class, meaning people with money to spend, are moving away from rural and high crime cities theses cities are working on ways to bring people back to replace the loss in population since 1910. Here are the listed areas. If you know of any more please add them to the list.

Harmony, Minnesota

The Harmony Economic Development Authority incentivize people to build homes in this town with a cash rebate program worth between $5,000 to $12,000, with no restrictions on age or income level.

Marne, Iowa

Officials in this Iowa town, located just 45 minutes away from Omaha, will give you free land to build a house if it's at least 1,200 square feet. The town, according to the 2010 census, has around 120 residents with a median age of 44-years-old.

Tribune, Kansas

Tribune, Kansas is looking to draw a younger generation of Americans to one of its least populated counties in the state, offering to pay off up to $15,000 worth of student loans over five years with the Rural Opportunity Zone program.

Curtis, Nebraska

Curtis, Nebraska offers newcomers lots of free land to build a single-family house within a certain timeframe, which can be placed in the town's Roll'n Hills addition or near the Arrowhead Meadows Golf Course.

Baltimore, Maryland

A surprising addition to this list, Baltimore has two programs that will help people looking to move to the city with buying a home. If you qualify, the Buying into Baltimore program offers residents a $5,000 forgivable five-year loan. The Vacants to Value Booster scheme offers $10,000 for a down payment and closing costs if you purchase property considered to be distressed or formerly distressed.

New Haven, Connecticut

New homeowners can count up to $80,000 worth of perks including a $10,000 forgivable five-year loan for first-time buyers. It also offers $30,000 of renovation assistance, along with paying up to $40,000 towards college tuition.

Alaska
www.ahfc.us...

The whole state of Alaska offers a myriad of different programs that aims to draw people towards the biggest state in the union. State-wide interest rate reduction programs for energy-efficient homes along with incentives for veterans and live-in caretakers of physically or mentally-disabled residents are also available.

Colorado

The Rocky Mountain state offers a program that will help you finance your first home if you suffer from a permanent disability. A down payment assistance grant is also available for everyone that offers up to 4% of a first mortgage, with no repayment necessary.

Wyoming

Wyoming offers residents who look to own a refurbished home an incentive through the Rehabilitation & Acquisition Program... ...The state also has another program that will assist individuals looking to repair old homes that need more than $15,000 worth of repairs.

As there are ups and downs with any of these towns it's up to each individual's preferences to decide where they would like to live. I think I'll research a few of these areas in more detail before packing my suitcase and loading the car.


www.dailymail.co.uk...
en.wikipedia.org...
www.zillow.com...
www.usatoday.com...

a reply to: LookingForABetterLife

Its just a guess on my part, but I'd guess that after this last crew of Republica cronies are swept outa office and the US elects another Obama type, the Feds will get involved by locating swarms of refugees into these small towns with offers to fund public housing and the like.

I live in a small town in west Texas and the biggest problem is no jobs. I've never understood why so many companies clamor to locate in the huge cess pool metro areas, especially in this day and age of the Interet.

Not even for all the money in the world . Have a far better quality of life and more freedom over here .

a reply to: TonyS

You might be having the correct guess as I've read that some of those areas are low on available jobs and looking for people to come in and open up new places for people to work at. As for refugees moving to these towns, I'm not too sure that is the plan except for those that can increase tax revenues to the areas. Perhaps I'm not thinking this through. The plan may be to bring in X number of people that can increase the area budget to allow the area to accommodate the expected hoards of refugees that can only survive by living off of government hand outs.

a reply to: VengefulGhost

from VengefulGhost

Not even for all the money in the world . Have a far better quality of life and more freedom over here .

from OP

As there are ups and downs with any of these towns it's up to each individual's preferences to decide where they would like to live.

If one is happy with where they are living then all is well. However, that is not the case for each and every one of us who would prefer to live somewhere else.

If you have the luxury of being able to have a job that allows you to work from home such as web design etc etc etc you certainly would not be in a dead end town, hell you would more likely be on a beach in Asia as many of the newly rich IT and YT guys and gals are..


Jobs and the ever mounting expenses just to live would just not add up to move somewhere that does not have oppurtunities , was the US Government a few years ago not restricting people from living in middle of nowhere as a community?, I have vague memories from researching off grid living.


Regarding the comment above about refugees, do not be fouled by the wording.. Like with Europe low skilled economic migrants will be the order of the day in the guise of Refugees, it is fairly obvious that the term "refugee" was used to soften the forced migration rhetoric when flooding Europe...


RA

Kids today are all about online so whether they are in Omaha in the middle of winter or Fla it doesn't matter to them...I think it is a great move.

originally posted by: TonyS
a reply to: LookingForABetterLife

Its just a guess on my part, but I'd guess that after this last crew of Republica cronies are swept outa office and the US elects another Obama type, the Feds will get involved by locating swarms of refugees into these small towns with offers to fund public housing and the like.

I live in a small town in west Texas and the biggest problem is no jobs. I've never understood why so many companies clamor to locate in the huge cess pool metro areas, especially in this day and age of the Interet.

The companies need and want the most qualified and experienced engineers. These people will only move to or remain in those areas where there are more jobs than workers. Once someone has found a good job, bought a house and started a family, got their children into good schools, they won't want to move.

With a one company town, management are forced to "promote" whoever is available at the time. So they'll try and grab engineers and shove them into different positions, who then burn out and/or leave. Or management may decide that there shouldn't be any promotions. Then the only option for someone to change jobs is to leave the city altogether.

By the balance of probabilities, as there are more jobs in metro areas than X-burbs or small towns, people move to the metro areas. In a metro area (like Silicon Valley), if a company needs a new manager or engineer, they just advertise for one. Small towns can maintain an industry if they achieve critical mass by having a large number of companies in a similar industry so that if at any time someone wants to change jobs, they can do so, without the hassle of Non-Compete Agreements.

Well researched list, thanks.

There is a lot of tornado alley in the list, however finding Maryland and Connecticut on the list is surprising.
Not bad for the younger to start out, if you have a WAH job, or there is something in the immediate area that is not a problem commute. Alaska has a high cost of living, but if you ever wanted to move there, those incentive, especially for veterans, will help alot.

originally posted by: Xtrozero
Kids today are all about online so whether they are in Omaha in the middle of winter or Fla it doesn't matter to them...I think it is a great move.

Seriously? Omaha has an awesome zoo. That's about all.
And Florida is chock full of gators, boas, and the occasional cleansing hurricane.

a reply to: slider1982

Dated March 2012...

The new growth of the rural Hispanic population may just as easily reflect a new kind of racial and ethnic balkanization over geographic space, a demographic development suggesting uneven geographic impact, and perhaps growing social distance and greater intolerance between minority and majority populations in some fast-growing rural places

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...

I believe you are correct in your memories of the US Govt. not restricting movement to rural areas in the past. From what I can tell from the above very long abstract report a majority of people now living in rural areas are Hispanic. If this is correct I feel that the current efforts to move people to these areas is an attempt to make those places more ethnically diverse.

a reply to: Xtrozero

As it's been many years since I was a kid who went from Atari to Commodore Vic 20 to there C64 to finally what is available now I think today's younger people, some of whom I know, want a life of more than staying in their parent's basements. The want in-person interaction with others in their age group. They would be better suited to live someplace like Miami. A place of many clubs, shops, and more outdoor activity than spending their days chopping firewood and digging out their cars from the snow just to go to the grocery store.

Who knows though. I'm no kid so I may be wrong.

Thank you for your thoughts on this thread.

a reply to: stormcell

Thank you for bringing up some good points, stormcell. I'm familiar with some midsize cities whose main industries have eliminated middle management to cut down on cost. The result of this is that the lower paid workers are required to do their work plus the of duties of the former middle management. This means more money and sometimes more hours for the workers which lead to job burnout and the desire to move on.

From the articles I've read to write this post I see that some of the small town/rural areas want people to come in to start new businesses to cure their one company-town complex and to ease the unemployment rate.

a reply to: charlyv

Thank you for your compliment charlyv.

I'm glad you noticed that most of these areas are in tornado alley. I lived in the said alley for 17 years myself. Like you, I'm surprised that Baltimore made the list. As for New Haven being on the list, I have mixed feelings. I've only been to Connecticut one time and found it to be a quite lovely part of the country. As it's a nice place to visit I do see some of the issues such as the price of gas, the general cost of living, and rise in crime. Not having researched all the above I don't know if it would be such a set back for already living in a high crime area.

originally posted by: LookingForABetterLife

Who knows though. I'm no kid so I may be wrong.

Thank you for your thoughts on this thread.

I'm no kid either but I have teens lol

originally posted by: TonyS
a reply to: LookingForABetterLife

Its just a guess on my part, but I'd guess that after this last crew of Republica cronies are swept outa office and the US elects another Obama type, the Feds will get involved by locating swarms of refugees into these small towns with offers to fund public housing and the like.

I live in a small town in west Texas and the biggest problem is no jobs. I've never understood why so many companies clamor to locate in the huge cess pool metro areas, especially in this day and age of the Interet.

Sorry bud, but I live in Texas too. People in the country are mostly racist, backwards pigs, and they know it too.

a reply to: SR1TX

Sorry bud, but I live in Texas too. People in the country are mostly racist, backwards pigs, and they know it too.

I would have complained about this statement but you used the magic word "mostly". I agree that there is a higher number than average of people living in rural areas that can be racist, bible thumpers, and with poor education. However, there is the smaller number that lives there just like you and me who see the world for how it really is.

I for one would rather live in a small rural area to stay away from the masses in the big city that only want you near them so they and rob and or rape you. Big cities are a mess.