Last year, Anne Berlin bought a home in Elkins, W.Va.hoya88, paying $215,000 outright for a three-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bath house built in the 1960s. Ms. Berlin, 44, a technical S.E.O. specialist who works remotely, could have afforded a place where she was “mortgaged to the hilt,” she said. “That’s not my vibe. I don’t want to be in massive debt. I wanted a place that I could really afford.”

She was attracted to Elkins because of its seasonal arts festivals and access to outdoor activities, but also because she’d been accepted by Ascend West Virginia, a selective program that provides $12,000, with no rules on how to spend it, to people who move to the state. (Ms. Berlin, who moved from Philadelphia, spent some of it on repairs and upgrades.)

ImageThe Tulsa Arts District.Credit...Joseph Rushmore for The New York Times

The program is one of a number of relocation incentive programs around the United States, including Tulsa Remote, in Oklahoma, and Remote Shoals, in the Muscle Shoals region of northwest Alabama. Many share broad goals: to encourage remote workers to move in; to boost and diversify local economies; to spark the sort of buzz that makes economic revivals self-sustaining. Home prices and rents are far below the national average in the areas these programs serve, an attraction but also a reflection of a dearth of local jobs. (Programs in Baltimore, West Memphis, Ark., and Newton, Iowa — once home to Maytag headquarters — offer incentives ranging from $2,000 to $10,000 to attract newcomers.)

Tulsa Remote is the largest of the programs. Its $10,000 incentive has brought more than 3,300 remote workers to the city since 2019, and applications rose this year over last. “There was always this belief that once the pandemic settled down there wasn’t going to be a place for programs like this,” said Justin Harlan, the program’s managing director. “But I think the reality is it’s much deeper than the pandemic and is more about the quality of life that people are looking for.”

Being accepted into the programs begins with proving eligibility requirements such as employment status and current place of residence. Programs also come and go; MakeMyMove.com, a service for communities that offer relocation incentives, keeps a list of active ones. Many are highly selective. Ascend West Virginia has accepted 402 of more than 50,000 applicants — after interviewing the finalists.

“They really wanted people who want to be ambassadors for the area and have the kind of lifestyle that fits in with who’s already there,” Ms. Berlin said. “They didn’t ask too much about ‘what do you do for work.’”

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