A woman was paid $10,000 to move from her home in Austin, Texas to a quaint town in Arkansas.
Alisha McDarris, an outdoor and travel journalist for Business Insider, shared how her and her husband packed up and moved to Fayetteville, Arkansas, a 55.8 square-mile town with a population of a little more than 103,000 residents.
McDarris said that they were lured into uprooting their lives in a buzzing city by an incentive program offered by the Northwest Arkansas Council, an economic development agency.
The couple both applied for the agency’s ‘Life Works Here’ initiative which offers $10,000 in bitcoin or cash and a mountain bike to 100 lucky remote workers from around the world.
After being chosen, McDarris and her husband traveled to the state in July 2022 and lived there for 15 months.
Along with her husband, McDarris saw drastic differences between the bustling Texas city and the quaint town with a little more than 95,000. (pictured: Aerial view of Fayetteville)
During their time, the couple found that they enjoyed where they lived but didn’t quite ‘love’ it.
During their time in the Bear State, the journalist and her husband grew fond of the many outdoor activities that surrounded them.
She noted that they loved to stay active in their new community as they participated in mountain biking, backpacking, camping and trail maintenance.
McDarris added that they had the pleasure of accessing trails ‘minutes’ from where they lived to embark on backpacking trips, and camping where they pleased without reservations.
Another part of living in the small town that they enjoyed was meeting others, including small business owners.
‘We found it easier to connect with fellow creatives and became friends with small-business owners who were just as invested in their communities as they were in their own success, which isn’t always the case in large cities,’ McDarris said.
McDarris and her husband also found that the cost of living in Arkansas is significantly cheaper than living in Texas.
McDarris found that the cost of living in Arkansas compared to Texas was significantly cheaper. (pictured: the skyline of Austin, Texas)
According to U.S. News, Arkansas is the number one state in the country to live based on its cost of living and housing affordability, while Texas came in at 28.
Although the couple found a cheaper apartment than the one they previously lived in, the location of their home was not ideal.
McDarris explained that their new home was just one highway exit away from the Arkansas Razorback Stadium. The arena has been the home to the University of Arkansas Razorback football team since 1938.
‘Living there became a headache that lasted through the late summer and autumn as fans clogged the streets and angrily honked at anyone not wearing the team’s signature red,’ she said.
The couple was ‘immediately disenchanted’ when they arrived during what she said was an apparent ‘housing crisis.’
‘I was also confused as to why we’d been enticed to move if there weren’t enough places to actually live here,’ McDarris said, adding that it caused them to panic.
Her and her husband were ‘immediately disenchanted’ when they arrived during what she said was an apparent ‘housing crisis.’ (pictured: Fayetteville, Arkansas)
After trading the city life for a simple, outdoorsy life, McDarris and her husband decided to pack up and move near the Wasatch Mountains in Utah.
‘After six months, we knew Arkansas wouldn’t be our forever home,’ McDarris said.
She admitted that the spontaneous move helped them realize what they wanted in their life.
‘I regret nothing about our transitional period in Arkansas,’ McDarris said. ‘Our time there was a necessary stepping stone across the river of life, a leap that made the next one seem attainable.’
Alisha McDarris, an outdoor and travel journalist for Business Insider, was paid $10,000 to move from her home in Austin, Texas to the small town of Fayetteville, Arkansas
The ‘Life Works Here’ initiative was first launched in November 2020 by the agency that is supported by the Walton Family Foundation ‘to attract top talent to the region.’
In addition to receiving a monetary incentive and mountain bike, the agency also allows participants to pick an annual membership to the region’s top cultural and arts institutions, according to the website.
‘This program is not only a benefit to the recipients and new talent for our region, but it also contributes to the vibrancy of our existing, growing market and our local economy,’ Nelson Peacock, president and CEO of the Northwest Arkansas Council said.