Austin, TX, has been ranked the best city for working from home, leading a list full of Southern and Western metros.
A new SmartAsset study looked at factors such as the number of remote workers, housing costs, and income taxes to determine what U.S. cities offer the most to work-from-homers.
Remote work has risen in prevalence from around 5% in 2016 to 17.9% in 2021. In 13 cities, more than a third of the workforce is remote. Some employers are even using remote work as a bargaining chip to offer lower salaries while inflation is high.
This type of work is changing how Americans view moving and shifting their priorities when searching for a new home. And it’s not going to change anytime soon: 9.3% of Americans, or 18.9 million people, say they are planning on moving because of remote work.
“The map is open for job-seekers who no longer need to search for a job in a certain ZIP code. You can search for roles across the entire country,” Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter, told CNBC.
In Austin, nearly 40% of its workforce is remote. Its other perks include no state income tax and a huge number of coffee shops.
Scottsdale, AZ, Chandler, AZ, and Durham, NC– all ranked in the top 5– also have a large number of remote workers. Six of the top 10 cities are in North Carolina and Arizona.
Pittsburgh, which takes third place, is the only city in the top 10 where median monthly housing costs do not exceed $1,000, giving remote workers the opportunity to afford a larger living space, including a home office.
It also offers a plentiful coffee shop and bar scene for workers to escape when they need a change of scenery.
California, meanwhile, is home to eight of the ten worst cities for working from home. In these cities, the income tax rate is nearly 25% and housing costs are more than $1,200.