Who doesn’t want to work from home. Tired of spending too much time stuck in traffic, or being distracted by the hustle and bustle of the office, or just sick of gossip round the water cooler, for one reason and another working from home is a growing trend. But do you know the best cities that cater for the working from home or telecommuting life.
To find out which areas are best suited to working from home, the people at realtor.com conducted a study looked at the top 100 metro areas in the U.S.
This study included the following criteria:
- Cost of High Speed Internet – After all this is a prime requirement for those people wanting to connect to the office.
- Median home prices / median one bedroom rental prices – Everyone needs to live somewhere
- Local Taxes – Lower taxes mean more money in your pocket.
- Cost of Health Care Insurance – Just in case you need medical attention.
- Number of Coffee Shops with Free Wi-Fi – So you can still do work when grabbing your caffeine intake for the day.
- Walkability Score – How easy is it to get around on foot.
- Number of gyms per capita – After all you do need some exercise when you are sat in front of a computer all day.
- Number of Bars Open at 3 p.m. – Really not sure about this one.
Given the above criteria the Salt Lake Metro area finished second behind Las Vegas. Even with the most expensive median home prices in the top 10, Salt Lake came in strong because of its easy access to outdoor activities like skiing and hiking, its plentiful gyms, cheap access to really fast fiber based internet, and cheap health insurance. The one area that many people may find surprising, was that it also scored really high for the number of coffee shops per capita.
After crunching all the numbers here are the top 10 places:
- Las Vegas
- Salt Lake City
- Louis
- Pittsburgh
- Atlanta
- Orlando
- Knoxville
- Cincinnati
- Minneapolis
- New Orleans