Do you WFH (work from home)? For a substantial number of working Americans, the answer is “at least some of the time.”1 The COVID-19 pandemic rocketed remote work to greater relevance in 2020, and despite the efforts of many employers to get workers back into office buildings since then, office work remains significantly impacted.1
Remote work gives people a more flexible way to do their jobs and live their lives, cutting time on the road and changing routines at home. The work-from-home phenomenon impacted the U.S. housing market in ways that we’re still experiencing today.
Remote Work Drives Suburban Housing Boom
City to Suburb Migration: After 2020, the prevalence of remote work shot up from less than 6% of the population in 2019 to at least triple that in 2021, per the U.S. Census Bureau. 2
Home prices began to climb during the pandemic, particularly in the suburbs of major cities in southern states like Texas and Florida.3 Multiple factors caused a cost surge, including already-low housing supply, but research published by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco® in September 2022 showed that remote work may be responsible for as much as 60% of total housing price growth.4
High-Income Workers Expanding Horizons: Why does the WFH trend get that much blame for hard-to-swallow housing prices? Remote workers tend to be employed in relatively high-income industries like tech and finance.5 Remote work enables high-income workers to cast a wider net in search of bigger homes and more amenities.6
Workers untethered from in-office requirements ventured further out into the suburbs, causing prices to rise in these areas.7 Ironically, office workers are moving further away from city centers to find more affordable housing prices.8
The Shift to More Affordable and Sunny Destinations
The rise of remote work freed people up to migrate to new cities or states entirely, and many of them chose to relocate to relatively cheaper markets to make their dollars stretch further.10
Remote workers left cities like New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco by the tens of thousands post-pandemic, preferring places like Austin, Denver, Dallas and Nashville.10 Tech companies have a significant presence in all these cities, including those that lost remote workers—but the cities that gained them have a more attainable standard of living than high-cost coastal cities.
Work-from-Home Necessities: Home Office
When office workers first started to work from home in large numbers, they made do with the space that they had to set up their laptops and attend Zoom® meetings. Now that remote and hybrid work has become a more permanent fixture of the labor market, having a designated space for work has become more important to homebuyers. Those used to office conditions might want a space within their home that is distinct from where they relax and unwind or spend time with their families.
Conclusion
Now that remote work is more prevalent across the labor market, there’s no getting this genie back in the bottle (or the office). Remote workers are a sizeable demographic among homebuyers these days, and they’ll be searching for homes that fit their flexible lifestyle.
Considering a move? Newrez is here to help. Or perhaps you’re content staying where you are, and may like to add some office space onto your home. Newrez is here to guide you in making the most of your mortgage. So go ahead, we’re ready to talk home expansion.
For information on how much a mortgage may cost you, please check out our calculators for assistance or speak with a Loan Officer!
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco® is a registered trademark of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Zoom® is a registered trademark of Zoom Video Communications, Inc. Any above-mentioned companies are not affiliated with Newrez LLC.
1 Remote Work Statistics and Trends in 2024 (usatoday.com)
2 The Number of People Primarily Working From Home Tripled Between 2019 and 2021 (census.gov)
3 Why Did Housing Costs Explode During the Pandemic? - Bloomberg
4 Remote Work and Housing Demand - San Francisco Fed (frbsf.org)
5 Remote Work Statistics & Trends In (2024) – Forbes Advisor
7 Expert Voices 2024 | Remote Work: Its Impact on Cities | PennIUR (upenn.edu)
8 Remote Work and Housing Location Preferences (fanniemae.com)
