Show of hands, please: Who out there likes to commute?
Hardly anyone, right? For those lucky enough to work from home, one of the upsides is avoiding the rush-hour commute. Prompted by health mandates caused by the pandemic, the WFH experiment has revealed a dramatic shift in working life.
In Apartment List’s latest report, it’s estimated that one in three American jobs could be performed remotely long-term. Before the pandemic, 17 percent of workers did the WFH thing, according to Statista research.
Apartment List’s report is an impressive, exhaustive analysis of remote working and its impact on housing markets. It deserves a close look. The report identified a new category of workers — the untethered class — who are employed in remote-friendly occupations and are not tied down by home ownership or family obligations. These workers are young and mobile.
According to the report, 8.7 million Americans (5.6 percent of the total workforce) are untethered. Obviously, higher shares live in San Francisco, New York, and Seattle.
In the Dallas metro area, 6.9 percent of the workforce is fully untethered, ranking the region 14th. Untethered workers in Dallas have a median income of $50,000 and a median age of 32, which is 10 years younger than the area’s overall workforce. Also, 32.2 percent of jobs are remote-friendly, ranking the region 31st among the nation’s 100 largest metro areas. Remote-friendly workers in Dallas have a median income of $63,000 compared to $35,400 for the metro’s non-remote-friendly workforce.
What do all these stats mean?
It’s something to discard if you have to resume the commute once the pandemic completely subsides. But it reveals useful data for workers who are contemplating more WFH opportunities.
INRIX, a transportation analytics company, has found in its 2020 Global Traffic Scorecard that traffic delays have fallen nearly 50 percent in the U.S.’s major cities, saving drivers nearly 75 hours on the road.
Bottom line, the pandemic has fast-tracked the WFH experience. The change also has potentially drastic implications for migration patterns and housing markets going forward.
Other Notable Reports
- RE/MAX National Housing Report: Median home-sale prices in Dallas-Fort Worth are up 14.9 percent over a year ago, according to the RE/MAX National Housing Report. The median home-sale price is $314,000. D/FW housing inventory is at 1.1 months supply, down 57.7 percent over last year. Homes are selling 38 percent faster than a year ago. Learn more here.
- RENTCafé: Fort Worth had the largest year-over-year rent increase for a 1-bedroom apartment, $1,183, up $4.6 percent, according to the RENTCafé February for the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Arlington rents increased by 3.5 percent, reaching $1,084. Dallas’ rent increased 0.2 percent and charges $1,254. Flower Mound charges the most expensive rent in D-FW at $1,586, but down 0.9 percent from last year. Learn more here.
- Attom Data Solutions: Dallas-Fort Worth area saw 13.7 percent fewer home flips, according to Attom Data Solutions. Nationwide, home flips fell 13 percent, the lowest level since 2016. In 2020, the D-FW area had about 4,398 home flips with an average profit of $50,374, the eighth-best nationally. In North Texas, home flips accounted for about 5 percent of total property sales. Learn more here (subscription) | Q3 Report
