The Rise of Work-From-Home Towns

An excerpt from Bloomberg Opinion - Read more HERE .

Even before the pandemic there were places where not commuting was a pretty normal thing to do. The corona virus pandemic, and the accompanying mass shift to doing white-collar work from home, has led to reports of real estate frenzies in scenic places. One thing these places have in common, other than mountains, is that even before the pandemic they had lots of residents who usually did their jobs from home.

Nice Places Not to Commute From; New mexico made the list. Santa Fe and Taos for Metropolitan|micropolitan areas with the highest work-at-home share.

People have fled cities during pandemics throughout history, and generally returned afterward, so their current seeming unattractiveness probably isn’t a reliable guide to the future. On the other hand, the current trend toward working from home, or more generally working remotely, has been gaining strength ever since broadband internet began to become widely available two decades ago.