Working from home has skyrocketed across the country, jumping from 5.3% in 2018 to 63% by early April of this year, prompting the National Association of Realtors to take a closer look at which counties are best positioned to support the trend.
Based on a variety of data points — this includes housing affordability, population growth, the percentage of households with internet connectivity and the percentage of workers in office-related jobs, among others — NAR ranked all 3,142 U.S. counties.
“The coronavirus pandemic greatly accelerated the number of workers who are able to work from home,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said in a press release. “Possibly a quarter of the labor force may be permitted to work from anywhere outside of the office even after a vaccine is discovered — compared to only 5% prior to the pandemic – and this will greatly change the landscape of where people buy homes.”
The top 30 best performing counties had more than 5,000 households, according to the report. Florida tied with North Carolina for fourth place in terms of states with the most counties in the top thirty. Both states had two in the list; Florida’s were St. Johns County at No. 16 and Seminole County at No. 28.
NAR CEO Vince Malta said in a press release that more remote work options could result in buyers seeking “larger properties that offer space for a potential home office and other features that have become more valuable as a result of this pandemic.”
“The growing trend and historically-low mortgage rates are spurring potential homebuyers to consider a broader range of options and rethink what’s important to them in the long term,” he added.