ANN ARBOR, Mich. – It’s a new year and Ann Arbor has received a new accolade as the fourth-best city for working from home.
Last year saw many people across the United States turn their living rooms and kitchen tables into makeshift home offices and classrooms while trying to maintain some semblance of work-life balance.
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Money, a personal finance publication, looked at data from 1,720 cities and towns to find the top places for its Best Places to Work From Home list.
The publication narrowed down its list using data in various categories including cost of living, safety, quality of education, housing market, internet connection, space and access to pharmacies, daycares and other facilities.
The number of residents who worked from home before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and at-home conveniences were also taken into consideration, according to Money.
Landing at fourth place, Ann Arbor was one of two Midwestern cities to make the cut.
With 90.3% of the population within a 10-minute walk of some kind of park and six restaurants per every 1,000 people, the city’s amenities gave it an edge against competitors.
While only 44% of residents own their own homes, a median home price of $293,000 means that Tree Town had the second-lowest median home prices of the top 10 cities.
Money noted that prior to the pandemic, only 7% of the population worked from home.
Here are the top 10:
- Reston, VA
- Lower Merion, PA
- Naperville, IL
- Ann Arbor, MI
- Roseville, CA
- Parker, CO
- Cedar Park, TX
- Portland, OR
- Greenville, SC
- Tewksbury, MA
To be considered for the list, cities had to have a diverse population over 25,000 people, a crime rate less than double the national rate, a median sale price for homes at or below $615,000 and less than 85% of its state’s median household income.
Data and analysis were sourced from various organizations and companies including Witlytic, ParkServe, Synergos Technologies Inc., TomTom, Attom Data and the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, among others.