8 cities and towns where you can get a home for free — or buy one at a massive discount

Tim Boyle/Getty Images

• Many cities and towns have taken to giving away abandoned homes for free, or selling them at minimal prices.
• Some local governments even offer stipends or discounts to encourage buyers to renovate old properties.
• While the offerings may seem like a steal, rehabilitating a home can be quite costly.

Cities may be experiencing a global housing shortage, but there are still plenty of ways to find cheap real estate. You just have to know where to look. 

In areas where homes are old or unoccupied, governments occasionally offer subsidies to finance a renovation. In other cases, homeowners are willing to list their properties at little to no cost. 

We've rounded up the locations where you can find a home for free or at a major discount. 

The list includes small towns like Tulsa, Oklahoma, as well as major urban areas like Baltimore, Maryland, and Tokyo, Japan. Take a look.

Homeowners in Tokyo are listing their abandoned properties for free.

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Tokyo has been building like crazy, but the city still struggles to get rid of its unoccupied and deserted homes. The Japan Times recently reported that more than one in 10 homes in Tokyo are empty.

Part of this has to do with the shrinking size of Japan's population, which means fewer buyers. It's also considered bad luck in Japan to purchase a home that has witnessed a murder, suicide, or "lonely death" (one that occurred in isolation). 

For this reason, many properties are being given away for free on online databases called "akiya banks," a reference to the Japanese word for "empty home." Others are being sold for as little as $4.

Read more: Millions of Japanese homes are abandoned, and owners are giving them away for free

 

New Haven, Connecticut, is giving away up to $42,500 in housing discounts to first-time homebuyers.

Christian Hinkle/Shutterstock

First-time homebuyers in New Haven are eligible to receive up to $10,000 to cover the closing costs or the down payments on their homes. The subsidy comes in the form of an interest-free loan, which is fully forgiven after five years.

City employees, teachers, police officers, firefighters, and members of the military receive an additional $2,500 off.

On top of that, the city is giving away $30,000 to those who renovate their homes using energy-saving upgrades.

 

 

Tulsa, Oklahoma, offers remote workers a 33% discount on a fully furnished apartment for three months.

Tulsa Remote

The Tulsa Remote program is offering a small group of digital nomads — people with the freedom to work from anywhere — up to $10,000 to move to the city.

While the stipend doesn't go directly toward housing, the program offers a 33% discount on fully furnished apartments in the Brady Arts District, with utilities thrown in for free.

Workers are expected to live in Tulsa for a full year, but the apartment discount expires at the end of three months. At that time, they'll have to cover their own rent, which is still among the cheapest in the nation. 

Read more: Tulsa, Oklahoma, is paying remote workers $10,000 to live there. They'll even throw in a discounted apartment.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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