The Austin area is home to more people working from home than any other major city in the United States, according to United States Census Bureau Data, as reported by the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University and the Austin American-Statesman.
Almost nine percent of Austinites ages 16 and up who have jobs telecommute, compared to about five percent nationally. Higher percentages of those who work from home tend to be located more on the west side of town or downtown, which aligns with wealthier neighborhoods with higher education levels, according to the Statesman. University of Texas engineering professor Kara Kockelman, who offered her insights to the Statesman, pointed to highly educated people who work in white-collar professional jobs as those who have more opportunities to work from home.
The large tech industry also allows for telecommuting opportunities. The article refers to Dell, a large tech company in the Austin/Round Rock area that encourages its employees to work from home and even has a goal of 50 percent of its employees working from home by 2020.
Another factor is working members of the household. U.S. Census data also showed that about 40 percent of Austin households have two workers. Usually, one will be farther from a physical work location and more likely to work from home. Finally, traffic is a reason many pursue a means to work from home, even though high-traffic cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York ranked lower than Austin for at-home workers.
The Denver-Aurora-Lakewood area of Colorado was second on the list for at-home workers, at just over eight percent.