WASHINGTON 鈥� Small towns in rural America are facing an economic survival crisis, and some are offering incentives to get people to move there.
Take, for example, , population: 1,000. Loup City has turned farmland into a small neighborhood near town, named John Subdivision, with roads and sewer lines, and is giving the lots away, free of cost, to anyone who commits to build a home there within a year.
And people are moving there.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e down to one lot left, and they say they鈥檙e getting two to three calls a week from people who are interested,鈥� Filipe Chacon, at real estate firm Trulia, told 麻豆官网. 鈥淭hey are getting ready to expand it again.鈥�
, is trying to attract entrepreneurs. The town is offering any available lot in town for free to someone who moves there and starts a business in an environmentally-friendly industry that hires at least 24 locals.
, has a program through its Economic Development Authority that offers up to $12,000 to anyone who builds a new home in town.
The state of Kansas has established that include 73 counties offering student loan repayment assistance up to $15,000 for people who move there.
Even towns that would not at first blush seem economically depressed or facing a declining population are offering incentives to draw new residents.
鈥�, which is a significantly larger area with a population of about 50,000, is trying to draw younger residents by offering $7,000 of student loan repayment, as long as they agree to buy or rent a house on the town鈥檚 main street,鈥� Chacon said.
, home to Yale University, is relatively economically depressed outside of the school’s ivy-covered walls. It has grant programs of up to $10,000, interest-free, for a down payment or closing costs on a new home.
Find out more about these population-building incentives around the country.
