Digital nomads will find themselves at home (at least temporarily) working remote from Scottsdale or Gilbert.
A year and half after the onset of the pandemic—and subsequent transition to working from home for those who could—72% of white-collar workers are still working from home, according to a May 2021 Gallup poll. However, not all places are created equal with regards to what’s necessary to work from home. For instance, a great internet connection is essential. Amenities such as restaurants and grocery stores nearby are also wonderful to have because cooking or ordering delivery are the best lunch options. Even local flexible coworking offices come in handy when you need a change of scenery and the local café is too busy to hold Zoom meetings.
CommercialCafe recently looked into the top 20 U.S. cities for digital nomads and those who work from home full-time, and discovered that the Valley of the Sun is a top choice for those working from home.
Scottsdale and Gilbert hold the first and second spots on the list, respectively, with Chandler coming it at #18. There’s a lot to be desired in these cities, too–320 days of sun per year, exceptional amenities and no humidity–add in the proximity to SoCal and Las Vegas, and you have yourself the definition of “sweet spot.” Plus, it also has one of the highest median earning averages on at $60,600.
According to the 2019 census, more than 11% of the total workforce in Scottsdale was working from home at the time, a number that more than doubled in just four years. Meanwhile, more than 14% of Gilbert’s workforce worked from home that same year, an increase of 30% between 2015 and 2019. Chandler, on the other hand, hasn’t seen the growth in remote work to the same extent that its neighbors have, with just 5.8% of the city’s workforce working from home regularly, up only 2% since 2015. If anything, this quiet, family-friendly Phoenix suburb is primed for future work-from-home needs.
Additionally, all three cities also scored fairly high on CommercialCafe’s Remote Work Friendliness Index, which takes into account the speed of the internet, how many professional Phoenix offices for rent are available per capita, how many restaurants are available for delivery, home size and average monthly housing costs. For this metric, Scottsdale scored 63 out of 100 points, behind only Atlanta. Gilbert came in with 55.6 points and Chandler earned 46.7 points.
Part of the reason these Arizona cities scored so high overall was that they also scored high for quality of life, as well—between 85 and 90 points each—on an index that measures aspects such as crime rate, education quality, average housing value and unemployment. Indeed, all three cities report lower crime rates overall; great schools and jobs; and housing markets that are on fire.
Read the full report here.
