City in Indiana Pays Remote Workers $5,000-Plus to Move There, Attracting Californians and Others

A homeless encampment in California. Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images

Californians have yet another reason to move out of state, as cities like Noblesville, Indiana partner with the company MakeMyMove to attract new residents.

MakeMyMove, which specializes in helping remote workers relocate, partnered with the city of Noblesville to bring talent to Indiana and attract remote workers to become residents of the city.

The partnership goes back to at least 2022, according to an email from Chuck Haberman, the Assistant Director of Economic Development for the City of Noblesville, to the Noblesville Board of Public Works.

The town sought to attract 15 people in the first year of the promotion. This year, it’s aiming for 30, the Hamilton County Reporter stated.

To eligible workers who relocate, the town is offering $5,000, an unlimited golf membership, an aquatics center season pass, coffee with the mayor, and more totaling $15,000. This is the greatest amount of incentives any place in Indiana is offering to people who move.

A committee of business and city staff reviews the applications, according to Robert Herrington, the communications manager for the mayor of Noblesville.

While the program targets remote workers across the United States, the prospect of smaller towns in other states has attracted the attention of many Californians.

Fresno residents Mariah and Chad Zingarelli were among the families attracted by the relocation grant and other incentives. According to the Los Angeles Times, the town of Noblesville was appealing to the family because it was one of the top places to raise a family.

Remote workers have made up an increasing percentage of the general workforce; cities that advertise under MakeMyMove seek to target these demographics. After the pandemic, about 10 percent of all workers remain fully remote, according to the Los Angeles Times.

This has given remote workers the freedom to increasingly move away from cities into quieter suburbs and save money. Some places in West Virginia, such as Morgantown and Lewisburg, are offering to pay $12,000 in cash to each qualified worker who moves, and most places require applicants to have remote jobs and come from out of state, the Los Angeles Times reported.

According to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey Data, San Jose and San Francisco have lost 32,000 and 27,000 remote workers respectively.

In some parts of the United States, almost one third of workers are remote. For instance, 34 percent of Washington, D.C.’s population are remote workers, while San Francisco is close behind at 33 percent, according to Route Fifty.

MakeMyMove has attracted thousands of people, many of whom are remote workers, seeking to move to other states. These workers are targeted for varying reasons; according to USA Today, some areas want more high-skill workers or may just want to fill population declines. Small towns and cities across America have experienced population declines for some time.

Residents leaving California have had great effects on the state’s population. People numbering in the hundreds of thousands have migrated to states like Arizona, Texas, and Nevada in the past few years.

Commonly cited reasons for leaving California are increasing crime rates in major cities, the homelessness crisis, and the high cost of living. Those who move to other states are often able to buy a house for a fraction of what they would have paid in California.