(NewsNation) — More and more Americans are trading the big city and bright lights for open skies and quiet nights in search of a better quality of life.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, many small towns started to offer financial incentives to push remote workers to relocate. Now, these programs have exploded in popularity among both remote and on-site workers and their families.
The relocation programs have proven to be mutually beneficial as transplants can experience life in a new way while boosting local economies and ingraining themselves into the fabric of their communities.
Programs across the country
There are over a dozen states with programs designed to incentivize relocation to small towns and less populated areas.
Tulsa Remote was created before the pandemic in 2018 and is the first and largest remote worker relocation program in the country. The program offers $10,000 to move to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and stay for at least a year. To date, the program has relocated over 3,600 people and created thousands of jobs.
The economic impact on the local economy has been apparent, as at the end of 2024, Tulsa Remote members delivered more than $622 million to Tulsa’s economy, generated $30.5 million in county and state taxes and created more than 1,400 jobs, according to the Tulsa Remote Sustainable Growth & Economic Impact report.
Choose Southern Indiana launched in 2021 and has relocated over 100 people. The program offers up to $5,000 to relocate to one of six counties in southern Indiana for at least two years, along with a litany of other small perks.
Ascend West Virginia offers $12,000 and access to free outdoor recreation to relocate for two years to one of five counties in West Virginia. The program has already relocated over 500 people.
What families are saying
NewsNation’s Alex Caprariello spoke with families who made the switch to small-town living to learn more about why they made the leap.
Last year, Sam Brodrick and his family of five left their home outside of Memphis, Tennessee, to move to Jasper, Indiana, a town with less than 17,000 residents, through the Choose Southern Indiana program.
Brodrick told NewsNation that his new county is “phenomenal” and that he has no plans of leaving anytime soon.
“You only get to raise your kids one time. And I want to do what’s best for mine,” Brodrick said.
Jacqueline Shaulis moved with her teenage son from New York to Martinsburg, West Virginia, through the Ascend West Virginia program.
Shaulis had “never imagined” that she would live in West Virginia but upon making the move was “pleasantly surprised.”
“We leaned in with curiosity, like, who’s moving to West Virginia, let’s go check this out, and we fell in love with it,” Shaulis concluded.