I got paid $5,000 to move to a place I’d never heard of

Scientist Elena Chrysostomou also used a relocation support scheme to swap a big city for smalltown US. In 2024 she relocated from San Diego, California, to Jacksonville, a town of 17,700 people in rural Illinois.

The move was backed by the Jacksonville Regional Economic Development Corporation (JREDC), which gave her $5,000 in cash, plus a “quality of life package” worth $4,000 that includes free gym memberships and golf passes.

The JREDC says that while the region is “already a great place to live”, the support scheme helps to “sweeten the deal”.

Elena was spending $3,000 renting a one-bedroom apartment in San Diego, but she now owns a three-bedroom home, with a mortgage of $1,868. At the same time, her salary has gone up 22% after she changed jobs, and her commute has gone down from a 15-minute drive to one of just one minute.

“I never thought that I’d be able to afford a house on my own, I always thought I’d need a partner, and even then, in San Diego, it would be so tough,” she says.

“It’s just more freeing. There’s more security and independence.”

While both she and Brianna have no regrets, they do admit to some drawbacks to their new lives. These include the narrower range of activities and restaurant choices, leaving behind friends and family, and for Brianna the difficulty of settling her children into new schools.

And while in Portland Brianna enjoyed walking to parks and shops, she now relies on her car to get anywhere.

But overall she says she is thrilled. “I have the biggest savings I’ve ever had in my life, and I’m a homeowner, and I can do things with my kids – we actually went on vacation for the first time in my youngest’s life.”