Top 50 US Cities to Remote Work

Remote workers prefer small, affordable, and outdoorsy cities

The Wall Street Journal and Realtor.com partnered together to rank the top 300 markets that are small, affordable and outdoorsy. Remote work has caused a migration out of large metropolitan cities to areas like Boulder, Colorado. In addition to house prices, other factors that made these cities ideal for remote workers are real estate taxes, unemployment, wages, commute time, and small business loans. The top 20 cities have an average population size of 400,000.

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Here are the top 20 markets in the United States:

1. Elkhart-Goshen, Indiana

2. Burlington, North Carolina

3. Johnson City, Tennessee

4. Fort Wayne, Indiana

5. Billings, Montana

6. Raleigh, North Carolina

7. Rapid City, South Dakota

8. North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, Florida

9. Topeka, Kansas

10. Visalia-Porterville, California

11. Fort Collins, Colorado

12. Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina

13. Santa Cruz-Watsonville, California

14. Boulder, Colorado

15. Huntsville, Alabama

16. Vallejo-Fairfield, California

17. Eureka-Arcata-Fortuna, California

18. Jefferson City, Missouri

19. Elizabethtown-Fort Knox, Kentucky

20. Colorado Springs, Colorado

Rapid City, South Dakota ranked 7th on the list is the second most populated city in South Dakota with a population of 75K.

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Employers begin to taper hiring new employees

Entering Q3 of 2022, some of the largest publicly-traded companies are explicitly saying that they will be either slowing the pace of hiring or will be halting any new hires in the immediate future. Microsoft MSFT 0.00%↑ , Google GOOG 0.00%↑ , Meta META 0.00%↑, and Netflix NFLX 0.00%↑ are among a long list of companies who have now publicly stated that they are halting the hiring frenzy and will be focusing their efforts and resources on the people they have.

A question that hasn’t come up in this seasons’ earnings calls is will employers require employees to come back and physically work out of the company office? Perhaps, this topic is beating a dead horse and the debate is settled. If it is, then remote work and hybrid schedules are the new norm.

Here are the next 30 cities on the WSJ/Realtor.com Emerging Markets Index for Summer 2022:

1. Portland-South Portland, Maine

2. Yuma, Arizona

3. San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles-Arroyo Grande, California

4. Lafayette-West Lafayette, Indiana

5. Manchester-Nashua, New Hampshire

6. Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, California

7. Waco, Texas

8. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California

9. Kingsport-Bristol-Bristol, Tennessee-Virginia

10. LaCrosse-Onalaska, Wisconsin-Minnesota

11. Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent, Florida

12. Wilmington, North Carolina

13. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida

14. Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, California

15. Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island, Florida

16. Knoxville, Tennessee

17. Columbia, Missouri

18. Fresno, California

19. Columbia, South Carolina

20. Hickory-Lenoir-Morgaton, North Carolina

21. Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, North Carolina-South Carolina

22. Coeur D’Alene, Idaho

23. Decatur, Alabama

24. Gainesville, Georgia

25. Modesto, California

26. Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, Tennessee

27. Columbus, Ohio

28. Salinas, California

29. Yuba City, California

30. Grand Junction, Colorado

Source: View the full list of 300 markets here (WSJ subscription required).

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