Over the past year, it has become increasingly clear that remote working will not go away with the pandemic. A survey of 20,000 tenants carried out by RentCafé in May found that a third of those surveyed work from home and expect that they will either continue to work in whole or in part.
Among the respondents who assume that they work remotely, 75 percent said that they do not have a separate space to work, but use bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens and even closets. A third said he was looking to upgrade to an additional room.
But how much is that going to cost? Among the top 100 cities in the United States, additional rent ranged from 11 percent (or $ 131) in Stockton, California to a whopping 43 percent (or $ 1,532) in Manhattan. (To avoid biasing the data in New York City, where rents are volatile, each borough was viewed independently.) The national average increase was 24 percent, regardless of the size of the current home.
An encouraging note for those concerned about the added cost of renting more rooms, the money saved on commuting to work from home could cover a large part of the cost of sizing. (An average of $ 417 was spent on commuting, while an extra room added $ 337 to the cost.)
This week's graph, based on RentCafé data, shows which of the 100 largest US cities had the smallest and largest percent rent increases when dimensioning a space with an additional bedroom.