- Chattanooga, Tennessee
- Bear Valley Springs, California
- Pawlet, Vermont
- Kaysville, Utah
- Jonesborough, Tennessee
- Petoskey, Michigan
- Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania
- Bemidji, Minnesota
- Springfield, Vermont
- Eastpointe, Michigan
While the concept of remote work has begun during the pandemic, it isn’t a brand-new idea. Between 2005 to 2017, there was a 159% increase in remote work, and today—according to Statista—11.2% of USA citizens are performing from home, which is up from 5.7% of individuals working remotely in 2019. And we’re getting used to it—22% of workers say they’d wish to work from home permanently. So what are the simplest places within the us to figure remotely? PCMag, a number one technology trade publication, released a report yesterday ranking the simplest work-from-home cities for 2021. And it’s not just big cities: The list also includes suburbs and little towns.
PCMag created the list using data from Ookla Speedtest, BestPlaces.net and BroadbandNow, analysing places with affordable housing, fast gigabit, affordable internet connections and remote-work-friendly lifestyles.
Coming in at the highest of the list is Chattanooga, Tennessee. Set within the foothills of the Appalachians, Chattanooga has all the amenities of an urban city, alongside a coffee cost of living and straightforward access to nature. Chattanooga is usually called “Gig City”—it unrolled a citywide fiber network in 2010—and supposedly has the fastest internet within the world. the town has also been working to recruit tech workers and corporations. “In 2020, it had been evident that Chattanooga has been ready to attract talent from major cities and corporations,” speculator Santosh Sankar of Dynamo Management Co. told PCMag. The standard of life was a serious reason many of those folks moved from places like NYC, SF, LA, and more.”
This isn’t the primary time Chattanooga has been grabbing attention. Zillow also ranked Chattanooga (pop. 180,000) because the No. 1 Best Metro for Remote Workers, and therefore the city’s ideal WFH environment was the topic of a recent outing article.
Bear Valley Springs is on the second place in the list which is a personal gated community in California’s Tehachapi Mountains with 18 coffee shops per 100,000 people.
Southern Vermont performed well, with two locations making on the list: Pawlet (at number 3) and Springfield (number 9). Interestingly, big tech cities like San Francisco and NY didn’t make the cut.
