When a city like Tulsa, Oklahoma, can recruit nearly 700 households a year with $10,000 relocation checks—and keep 90% of them after the first year—it starts to look less like a post-pandemic gimmick, and more like a new model of economic development.

That’s the bet companies like MakeMyMove are making, as small towns and rural communities across the country compete to lure high-income remote workers who feel priced out of their home states.

MakeMyMove is a platform that facilitates relocation-incentive programs, offering high earners perks like $10,000 cash, access to co-working spaces, vouchers for fitness classes and others in exchange for them moving into the community.

“Cash is the hook,” Evan Hock, COO at MakeMyMove, told Fortune . “But no one’s getting rich off of a $5,000 ca

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