How To Get A Free (or At Least Kind Of Free) House

In some parts of the world, it’s actually never been more affordable to pack up your things, blast Rusted Root’s “Send Me On My Way,” and find somewhere new to start over. Pawnee City, NE, a town of just under 900 people, announced an initiative last month that will offer $50,000 toward down payment assistance for people who are willing to relocate to the small town and buy a house.

The program, called Vision 2030, aims to attract new residents to revitalize the town, particularly the downtown business district, which recently lost its only bar. As of March 27, the program had 115 applicants.

Cities around the US have offered perks to woo remote workers, but this aggressive housing incentive is reminiscent of international programs hoping to attract US expats:

• An Italian village on the island of Sardinia created a website last year of one-euro houses to “meet US post-elections relocation needs,” according to the village’s Mayor Francesco Columbu. Other small rural Italian towns have offered one-euro houses to lure foreigners since 2018.
• Countries like Ireland and Japan have offered similar programs aimed at revitalizing rural areas in the countryside.

There’s a catch. The homes that pop up in clickbaity “move to paradise for FREE” articles usually need a lot of work. In the case of some one-euro rural Italian homes, they are even partially or fully collapsed, and the Irish and Japanese options require the new residents to put tens of thousands of dollars into the slow process of rehabbing traditional architecture.—MM