Though many companies have returned to the office, nearly half (48%) of employees plan to pursue roles that allow them to work from home, according to the Society of Human Resource Management — and a new report from SmartAsset, a financial tech company, has revealed that Austin, Texas is the best city to do so.
SmartAsset's report ranked 100 of America's largest cities across eight metrics including the percentage of the workforce that works from home, median monthly housing costs, unemployment rate, income tax rate, coffee shop density and bar density to determine the best city for remote work.
Austin, Texas snagged the number one spot, with Scottsdale, Arizona and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania trailing closely behind.
Based on the report, here are the top 10 cities to work from home in the U.S:
- Austin, Texas
- Scottsdale, Arizona
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Chandler, Arizona
- Durham, North Carolina
- Charlotte, North Carolina
- Fremont, California
- Nashville, Tennessee
- Gilbert, Arizona
- Mesa, Arizona
"The percentage of Austin residents working from home was 38.8% in 2021, which was the sixth-highest percentage in our study," Susannah Snider, CFP and managing editor of financial education at SmartAsset, tells CNBC Make It. "The five-year change in the percentage of people working from home was 30.6%, which was the seventh-highest percentage in our study."
"Additionally, Austin is home to a high concentration of coffee shops (making up nearly 1 in 100 establishments) and Austin also performed well in our income tax rate metric, since Texas has no state income tax."
Scottsdale, Arizona was ranked highly for its "relatively low state income taxes" as a worker earning $75,000 in the state "will pay less than 23% of their income toward federal and state taxes," according to the report.
While analyzing coffee shop and bar density, which Snider says helps "determine the cities with the most remote-work-friendly options outside of the home," Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was extremely favorable. The state holds the 10th highest bar density, in addition to low housing costs.
"Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is the only city in our top 10 where median monthly housing costs fall below $1,000," said Stephanie Horan, a chief educator of personal finance at SmartAsset, in the report. "With more affordable housing costs, workers may be able to buy or rent a larger home that can accommodate an office."
Mesa, Arizona takes the 10th spot on the list. In Mesa, the unemployment rate is the eighth-lowest (4.2%) and the number of homes and apartments with two or more bedrooms is the 29th-highest (85.5%). Similar to Scottsdale, professionals earning $75,000 will be taxed by the federal and state governments at 22.90%.
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