The State Of Michigan Offered Chicagoans $15,000 To Move To The Western Part Of The State, So Many People Did That The Program Ran Out Of Money And Had To Stop After Just Two Weeks.
Crains Chicago - An offer of $15,000 and gifts to move to western Michigan full time attracted so many people that the program closed to new applicants after two weeks.
The economic development group that launched the offer a month ago reports that nearly two-thirds of the applications it received are from people who now live in the Chicago area.
Cornerstone Alliance unveiled its Move to Michigan program Oct. 26. It’s a package of incentives including up to $15,000 in cash to people who buy a home for $200,000 or more in selected ZIP codes in the area around Bridgman, St. Joseph, Benton Harbor and other towns. Applicants also got to to choose from gifts such as a free annual pass on the South Shore train line, a health club membership or beach passes.
To collect, applicants had to agree to become full-time residents and certify that they will work remotely for a company outside the area.
People who take the Move to Michigan incentive may be working remotely, Cleveland said in October, but “they’ll have kids they put in the schools, they’ll spend time at the breweries. That’s how we build community.”
The $15,000 incentive comes as a forgivable loan, with $5,000 crossed off the balance due for each year the homeowners remain in the property.
It looks like it's a race to the bottom between Chicago and New York City. Lightfoot and DeBlasio are hell-bent on seeing which city can send the most residents fleeing this year.
It seems like once a week you see an article like this splashed across the post-
NY Post - More than 300,000 New Yorkers have bailed from the Big Apple in the last eight months, new stats show.
City residents filed 295,103 change of address requests from March 1 through Oct. 31, according to data The Post obtained from the US Postal Service under a Freedom of Information Act request.
Whatever the exact number, the exodus — which began when COVID-19 hit the city in early spring — is much greater than in prior years. From just March through July, there were 244,895 change of address requests to destinations outside the city, more than double the 101,342 during the same period in 2019.
The escape from New York is fueled not only by coronavirus concerns but economic worries, school chaos and rising crime, experts say.
And knowing first hand living in Chicago, seeing it every day, you don't need to read articles like this in Crains. It's heartbreaking stuff. Especially because of where we were as a city, crime and corruption and tax rates and government waste and massive debt and underfunded pensions aside, a year ago. Things were on the up and up. Real estate prices had never been higher, houses were being snatched up hours after they were listed. Every bartender and bottle service girl in the city were trading in their crop tops for real estate licenses and you can laugh but they were making a killing doing it because it was shooting fish in a barrel.
Now?
According to Crain's there is an inventory downtown of a year to a year and a half which is unheard of.
But this blog isn't all to remark how dark the days ahead for the city of Chicago (and New York) are.
Let's talk about Pure Michigan shall we?
First off, what a great ROI for the good people that ran this marketing campaign. To be honest, I know so many people moving across the lake to Western Michigan that hearing about a free $15,000 tax credit was superfluous (awesome word, look it up).
When you're over on the Eastern side of Lake Michigan (Western Michigan) it's hard to comprehend how its the same Lake Michigan that Chicago, Illinois, and Gary, Indiana share. Breathtaking doesn't do it justice.
Sand dunes. Long sandy beaches barren of syringes and Steel Reserve bottles. Pretty cape houses and lake cottages dotting the shore line broken up by state parks kept in pristine condition. Sail boats everywhere.
It's fucking magical.
Don't believe me?
Listen to Tim Allen tell you then-