The much-discussed recent exodus to the hinterlands -- where professionals who can suddenly work from anywhere pack up and do so -- hasn't included everyone. Those who can't afford to move have pretty much stayed put.

But some places, in need of fresh blood and a greater tax base, will actually pay you to move there, according to Redfin. An April report from the company lists several states and cities willing to help with moving expenses and other costs.

These places don't offer free rides; there are strings attached. You may be required to take a local job, for example, rather than work remotely for your current employer. But if you have a hankering to get out of Dodge, they may be worth a look-see.

Take Vermont. Earlier this year, the Green Mountain State offered two grants for new residents -- one for remote workers who moved there, the other for newcomers who took jobs in-state -- each worth up to $7,500. That's not enough to cover most families' moving expenses, but housing might cost less there than in your current locale. Redfin puts the median sales price of Vermont houses at $373,000, compared with $428,379 nationally.

Under the program, someone who relocated to Vermont, became a permanent resident and took a full-time job with a Vermont employer was eligible for relocation grants as long as the work paid (or exceeded) the state's livable wage of $15.33 an hour. And a remote worker grant applied to those who moved to Vermont but still worked for an out-of-state company.

Another mountainous state, West Virginia, offers one of the most lucrative deals for new residents. And you don't even have to work there.

A package of incentives from Ascend West Virginia is worth $20,000, which includes $12,000 in cash, plus free outdoor recreation equipment, co-working space and professional development opportunities. The median house price in the Mountain State is $291,600.

Transplants who take the offer will get $10,000 just for moving, then $2,000 more in their second year of residency. And there are no strings attached on how you use the money: You can pay your relocation costs, buy a new car -- totally your choice.

Free water-skiing, white-water rafting and other outdoor activities last only a year, as does free rental equipment. But during that time, the gear also is free for your family and friends.

Northwest Arkansas, where the median is $251,400, will throw in a free mountain bike or road bike for people willing to move to Benton or Washington counties for at least a year. You'll also receive $10,000. But you have to relocate within six months of being approved for the stipend.

Tulsa, Oklahoma -- median house price of $220,000 -- also offers a $10,000 relocation incentive: $2,500 upfront and $7,500 within your first year of residency. You have to be a remote worker, either for yourself or an employer outside Oklahoma, and you must move within 12 months of applying for the grant.

Why are these places offering such incentives? To bring "diverse, bright and driven individuals to the city for community building, collaboration and networking," per a statement from the Tulsa Remote website.

A bit north of Tulsa, the Choose Topeka Initiative offers cash to out-of-staters moving to the Kansas capital for an "on site" position with participating employers, as well as to remote workers whose companies are located outside of Shawnee County. Workers taking the former option could be eligible to receive up to $15,000 towards buying a house, or up to $10,000 for rent. (Remote workers are eligible for $10,000 or $5,000, respectively.) You must be a full-time employee, and your new digs must be your primary residence. Topeka's median home price is $147,000, Redfin reports.

Not to be outdone, Lincoln, Kansas, is giving away free plots of land ranging from 14,000 to 35,000 square feet. The lots are in a residential development within the city limits, complete with streets, water and sewer, and located just a few blocks from a high school, hospital, park and downtown.

The land's gratis, but you are on your own when it comes to building a house, which must meet certain requirements. A one-story house must have a minimum footprint of 1,300 square feet, exclusive of a basement and the required two-car garage, while a two-story must be at least 900 square feet. And for what it's worth, no farm animals or livestock allowed.

The median sales price in Lincoln? Just $79,000.

If you buy a house in Newton, Iowa, just outside of Des Moines, the city will give you a check based on the home's cost. If the house is $190,000 or more, you get $10,000. And under Hamilton, Ohio's novel plan to attract recent college grads in science, technology, engineering, arts and math programs, the city is offering to pay new residents $400 a month, up to $15,000.

The median home price in Newton is $133,500; in Hamilton, $160,000.

And then there's the Shoals area of Alabama, where four cities -- Florence, Muscle Shoals, Sheffield and Tuscumbia -- are paying $10,000 to self-employed and remote workers who move to the region. Takers will get $2,500 upfront, $2,500 more after six months of occupancy and the other $5,000 after a year.

Applicants' annual income must be at least $52,000, and the median home price for the region is $270,300.

Homeowners, which of these consumes more energy in your house: space heating or water heating? Either way, Uncle Sam is ready to help you pay for some energy-efficient upgrades.

The Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Biden a year ago, created two energy-efficiency rebate programs that could pay some, or even all, of the costs of buying Energy Star-rated appliances, adding insulation or otherwise making your home more efficient.

The rub: States will administer the programs, and each one must apply for its share of the $8.8 billion in federal funds earmarked for the rebates. And some states may opt out.

The states' application window opened this summer, when the Department of Energy issued the program's guidelines, and will close on Jan. 31, 2025. DoE expects the majority of states will have their programs up and running by early 2024. The rebates will be available to homeowners until Sept. 30, 2031, or until their respective state depletes its grants.

Declined funds will be redistributed to other states.

One state has already indicated it probably won't participate. Lawmakers in Tallahassee voted to apply for Florida's allocation -- which, at roughly $346 million, is the third-largest in the country, behind California and Texas. But Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed the measure as "woke."

The DoE has not been officially notified, so DeSantis could still change his mind.

Some details on what homeowners stand to gain: One program, called Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates, offers up to $14,000; the other, called Home Efficiency Rebates, offers up to $8,000.

Under the former, which is available only to low- and middle-income homeowners, the rebates include $8,000 for an electric heat pump for heating and cooling; $4,000 for an electric load service center; $2,500 for wiring upgrades; up to $1,750 for a heat pump water heater; $1,600 for insulation, air sealing and ventilation; and $840 each for a heat pump clothes dryer and an electric stove, cooktop or range.

Low-income households are defined as those earning 80% or less of the area's median income. Middle-income families earn 80% to 150% of the median.

Under the second program, rebates for improvements like installing energy-efficient doors and windows, smart thermostats and air conditioners are tiered, based on a household's energy savings.

For example, low-income homeowners can get back up to $8,000 toward the cost of their projects if they cut energy usage by 35%. Generally, though, the rebate is capped at 80% of the cost for low-income earners. (States can opt to cover the remaining 20%.) Middle- and high-income households can get up to $4,000 or $2,000, respectively, with a cap at 50% of the cost.

By stacking rebates with other incentives, according to an analysis by the AnnDyl Policy Group, low earners could receive more than $22,000 from the federal government. Middle-income folks could get up to $19,000, while higher earners could get $7,200. Moreover, additional incentives may be available from local utilities or other federal rebate programs.

Speaking of incentives, legislation has been introduced in Congress that would boost the federal gain-on-sale tax back to $500,000 for single filers and $1 million for joint filers, which is where it was prior to 1997.

Currently, single sellers can exclude just half the old amount -- $250,000 -- in gains from the sale of their homes, while joint filers can exclude $500,000.

In a rare show of bipartisanship, the measure was put forward by Reps. Jimmy Panetta, a California Democrat, and Mike Kelly, a Pennsylvania Republican, in hopes of solving the inventory crisis. The number of houses for sale is at its lowest level in years.

The write-off is just one reason homeowners aren't selling. For one thing, as soon as they sell, they're in the same low-inventory boat as everybody else. For another, people are loath to trade their low-rate mortgages for today's much higher costs.

But the inability to write off more of his gains was a deal-breaker for alert reader Tom Littman of San Jose, California.

The Littmans have lived in their home for 36 years; their kids are grown, and they would very much like to sell and downsize. But they would be hit with a capital gains tax on the "significant" profit, over and above the current write-off.

Instead, like many others, they elected to stay put.

When a third of GenZers surveyed admit they don't know how to change a lightbulb, it would appear that some respondents are pulling pollsters' legs.

These troubling findings ring true, though: Nearly half of the respondents surveyed by Clever Real Estate are not sure they understand the home-selling process, and more than a third are not confident in their understanding of the buying process. Worse, a third don't know what a down payment is, and more than half are clueless about escrow accounts.

For the uninitiated, a down payment is what buyers pay upfront for a house. Escrow has two meanings: It can be an amount of earnest money held by a neutral third party until closing, or it can be the portion of your monthly payment that is set aside for homeowner's insurance and property taxes.

Small-time investors who flocked to the housing market in recent years have done well. But it's now time to sell, says one of the nation's top housing economists.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors, believes now is the right time for investors to take their gains and head for the exits. In other words, take those profits and get out while the gettin' is good.

Of course, Yun has something of an ulterior motive: He'd like to see more houses available to the hordes of people struggling to buy homes, and it is his association's members who sell the bulk of those houses.

Still, there's no denying that investors in single-family houses and condominium apartments have done pretty darn well in recent years. Over the last three years, for example, the typical house value has "soared" by 35.5%, according to NAR's figures. And over the last five years, values leapt by 50.8%.

As a result, investors have built up a ton of equity, just like owner-occupants. ATTOM reports that almost half of all mortgaged residential properties are "equity rich," meaning what their owners owe is half -- or less -- of what their places are worth.

The typical American homeowner now has more than $274,000 in equity, says Selma Hepp, chief economist at CoreLogic. So the average seller -- including investors -- would pocket more than a quarter-million dollars after paying off their loan.

Then there's the money investors collect every month from tenants: Rents have gone up in recent years, just like house values.

NAR reports that rents have risen more than 16% over last three years, and nearly 25% over the last five. The national average rent for a two-bedroom apartment was $1,320 as of February, according to Statista. But the median is more than $2,000, Zillow reports, and it's likely even more for rental houses.

NAR's Yun points out that all of these gains took root when low-cost financing was plentiful. Now, though, mortgage rates are bouncing around the 7% level. Prices in many places have become static or are falling, and rents are being rolled back.

All real estate is local, so the situation may be entirely different in your market. But from 30,000 feet, it appears that investors have played out their hands.

Take house prices, for example. NAR's latest figures indicate that price increases are moderating, largely because many would-be buyers have been pushed to the sidelines by high loan rates.

In June, the median price for existing homes, including condominiums, was $410,200 -- the second-highest price since NAR began maintaining records. (The record high was $413,800, set the previous June.)

Home prices remain high because there aren't enough houses for sale to satisfy the buyers who aren't scared away by 7% mortgage rates. Redfin reports that in July, new listings were down more than 21% from a year earlier. And Altos Research reports inventory in early August was down 10% compared to the same week a year ago.

The number of houses for sale is only half of what it was pre-pandemic. And it's likely inventory will remain below 2022's levels for the rest of the year, says housing blogger Bill McBride.

Meanwhile, real estate research company Yardi Matrix reports that rent increases are slowing down nationwide. In May, rents rose less than .5% after previously advancing by twice that, month after month. (Disclosure: I write regularly for a publication owned by Yardi.)

Dwellsy's data for July shows declining rents in two of the three segments it tracks -- down $15 a month for two-bedroom apartments and $5 a month for three-bedroom units. (The price for one-bedroom apartments was flat.)

Mom-and-pop investors and landlords have one more thing to consider, Yun points out: competition. Apartment construction is roaring along at a 40-year high. That means more choices for renters, likely at lower rents, as everyone jockeys for tenants.

Owners of single-family rental houses may not necessarily see a new apartment tower as competition. But they should certainly view well-heeled Wall Street investors, who are gobbling up large tracts of single-family houses to rent, that way.

At the same time, competition for the relatively few houses for sale could benefit investors, especially if their properties are considered starter homes. Houses with 1,400 square feet of living space, or less, have pretty much gone the way of the dinosaurs, according to a new report from Point2 (another Yardi company).

Such houses used to be the first step up the property ladder. Now, "it's not just the concept of a starter home that's pretty much disappeared, but the home itself," writes Point2's Alexandra Ciuntu.

Indeed, the share of starter homes was halved between 2001 to 2021 -- from 13% of the total houses sold down to a meager 7%.