NEW HAVEN — Towns in America are attempting to revitalize their increasingly anemic communities by incentivizing people to move out to the countryside according to Daily Mail.
Cash grants, student loan pay offs and free land giveaways are just some of the enticements smaller communities are offering to a younger generation of Americans looking to leave the big city, where in some places individuals can utilize up to $80,000 worth of incentives to relocate.
According to USA Today, rural America encompasses 75 per cent of the country, but only 16 per cent of its population, the lowest in the nation’s history.
Numbers show that 54 per cent of the population in 1910 lived in rural communities, but dropped to just 19 per cent in 2010, according to a report by real estate website Zillow.
New Haven, Connecticut is by no means a small town, but city offers home-owner incentives that qualify it for the Country Living list.
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.
‘You can also receive an additional $2,500 if you’re a city employee, teacher, police officer, firefighter or member of the military,’ the program’s website states.
The city’s homeownership rate is between 32 and 34 percent, according to The New Haven Independent, with city officials looking ‘to get to 35 percent and north of that.’
From 2010 to 2016, the town’s population increased by 156 people, from 129, 779 to 129,934, according to census data.
