(playful music)
- [Narrator] This is Northwest Arkansas,
the birthplace of Walmart and the gateway to the Ozarks,
which you've probably heard of because of that Netflix show.
- You owe me to job?
- What?
- [Narrator] But for the most part,
this little corner of the country is off the radar
for today's legions of remote workers
who are itching to bounce
from their high-priced, high-density confines
in cities like San Francisco and New York.
But, here they all are.
- What?
- Are you serious?
(woman cheering)
- Duh, fantastic.
- [Narrator] Getting a Zoom call
saying that they've been selected.
- I feel like I won the lottery.
- [Narrator] To help put Northwest Arkansas on the map.
- How soon do you think you could relocate here?
- Wow, okay.
- [Narrator] Among the many incentivized relocation programs
attracting remote workers since the pandemic,
this one in Northwest Arkansas offers $10,000
to those who move to the area and stay for at least a year.
We're talking about cities like Bentonville,
Rogers, and Fayetteville.
- I did see that Fayetteville was also top places
for singles to meet people.
- [Narrator] They'll even throw in a mountain bike.
- Geez, $10,000 and a bike.
- [Narrator] After receiving more than 24,000 applications,
the program called their first 25 winners,
just a few weeks ago.
- I wasn't expecting you to tell me, so now I gotta--
- Oh goodness, I'm definitely gonna call my mom.
(Dazz laughs)
- [Narrator] It's probably not a huge shock
that hundreds of applicants came
from the pricey tech hub of the Bay Area
and that includes the Portillo family,
Josue, his wife Athena, who both work
for tech companies and their three kids.
- Thank God.
I would looking for a sign.
I was surprised and just full of joy.
Me and my wife have been talking
about trying to get a home, a new home for our family.
- Our living situation in San Jose is very, very compact.
It's a two bedroom,
so all of us are in that little condo.
- [Narrator] Before the pandemic,
Josue commuted four hours a day from San Jose
for his job in San Francisco,
leaving just a few precious hours left to spend
with his kids at night in their 800 square foot home,
but even though he was able to work from home
this past year, the Portillos still dreamt
of owning a big house, the kind they still
can't afford in the Bay Area.
But now, with their $10,000 grant
and the blessing of Josue's employer,
the Portillos, which includes Josue's parents,
say they'll be heading to the Ozark Mountains
in a few months, where an average home
costs less than $270,000, 70% cheaper than San Jose.
- When we went to go visit Arkansas,
it felt like a different country.
It just felt like a secret place that we found, like a gem.
- [Narrator] The Portillos are among the growing numbers
of remote tech workers fleeing the broader Bay Area
and especially San Francisco.
In fact, nearly 40% more people moved out
of San Francisco during the pandemic months
compared to the same period a year earlier,
the largest increase of any major city in the country,
according to data from moving company, Updater.
Most moved within California,
but these states were also top destinations.
While cities like Austin, Denver, and Seattle
are enticing Bay Area tech employees more than ever before.
This comes as some of the biggest tech companies
like Twitter, Facebook, and Salesforce,
San Francisco's largest private employer,
have all announced more permanent remote work options.
- I just never had given a thought to Arkansas.
- [Narrator] But if smaller, less known places
like Northwest Arkansas wanna compete
for these remote workers, they have to sweeten the deal,
with cash and tax incentives in the tens of thousands.
- This is gonna be amazing.
- [Narrator] Like Tulsa, Oklahoma did.
Though it's $10,000 grants launched in 2018,
the program saw a dramatic rise
in applicants since the pandemic.
It now has more than 500 participants
living and working in Tulsa.
A newer program called Choose Topeka pays up to $15,000
and has brought in 30 workers in just over a year.
- Right out of the gate, it exploded.
So, I mean, we had over 3,500 applications
within the first 30 days, globally.
- [Narrator] Bob Ross runs the Topeka program.
- It really exposed a tremendous pent up demand
for people looking for something new and a fresh start
and they saw Topeka as a possibility for that.
- [Narrator] Having won a $10,000 grant from Topeka,
Tyler Jaggers moved out of the Bay Area
and bought a $47,000 house in Topeka that he's fixing up.
- I was already thinking about moving, pre-COVID,
and then once COVID kicked in,
coupled with things such as, myself,
I was living next to a fire evacuation zone.
- [Narrator] As an indie video game developer,
who often dresses up for all the networking events in town,
Tyler hopes it will be easier to grow his company
with the lower cost of living.
- It's a nice little sleepy town.
It's not like bustling.
There's not a ton of traffic.
If you need to park, there's a spot.
You got a big truck, there's a spot.
Got a small car, enjoy it.
So, it was just great fun.
- [Narrator] Ross sees remote workers, like Tyler,
as an investment, one that will pay off.
- What we found is that $10,000
in remote incentives translates into $50,000
of economic impact in just one year.
And then, you add in just the soft benefits
of the intellectual and cultural impact
that there'll be making.
It's $10,000, very well-spent.
- [Narrator] But skeptics of these relocation programs
say the pandemic won't last forever and then what?
San Francisco supervisor, Matt Haney,
believes the Bay Area will always be the home
of innovators and entrepreneurs.
- The tech industry has had such a strong ecosystem here
that for people who wanna network,
who are starting businesses and wanna recruit folks,
engineers, a lot of that is concentrated here
in the Bay Area.
- [Narrator] And even if these relocated tech workers
don't return, that doesn't mean
a new wave of talent won't take their place.
- It may not be the same companies,
it may not be the same people before the pandemic.
Only the biggest, richest companies
could even secure office space here
and that may change, which I think could create
a renaissance for startups who wanna be in San Francisco.
- [Girl] Did you saw that?
Mommy, look at that big bubble.
- [Narrator] The Portillos say
they don't expect to return to the Bay Area.
- I think the only way we would come back
is the cost of living goes down,
but I don't know if that's gonna happen.
- [Narrator] But the family says a fresh start
couldn't have come at a better time.
Several weeks ago, the entire family contracted COVID.
Josue's father was on a ventilator
and they weren't sure he was going to make it.
- When he finally came home, it was a miracle.
The doctors say it was a miracle
and then, a few days later we got the grant.
It just felt like that saying,
"It's always darkest before the dawn."
(Josue's father singing in Spanish)
- Josue's father is expected to make a full recovery
and now, with some extra cash
and the promise of finding affordable property,
Josue can live close to his parents and look after them.
Some sort of acre lot, maybe even placing
her house and my house next to it, having a little ranch.
(laughs)
Yeah.
(gentle music)