Fairfax County Named A Top Place For Working From Home

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA —The pandemic has shed a light on the ongoing discussion of working remotely becoming prevalent in the workforce. With some jobs switching to a work from home approach, the National Association of REALTORS decided to conduct a study of places poised to continue supporting this working approach. Fairfax County was one of four places in Northern Virginia in the top 30.

The National Association of REALTORS examined 3,142 counties that are able to support a strong remote working environment. The study looked at a variety of factors to develop a work from home score. There were two aspects that play into the score: the fraction of workers currently working from home and factors that continue to support the trend of working from home.

Factors that positively contributed to the score were percent of households with a computer or laptop, percent of households with internet broadband access, percent of population with three or more providers, percent of workers who worked at home, percent of area that is considered urban, population growth from 2014 to 2019, and percentage of population working in information; finance and insurance; real estate, rental, and leasing; and professional, scientific, management, administrative and waste services. Two other factors played negatively into the score — median value of property to median household income, and percent of households with a mortgage who spent 30 percent or more of income on housing costs.

Fairfax County and three other Northern Virginia jurisdictions were scored in the top 30, representing 1 percent of counties with at least 5,000 households in 2019. Fairfax County came in 30th, while Loudoun County was fifth, Falls Church City was 19th, and Arlington County was 23rd.

For Fairfax County, the study results page noted an estimated 6.4 percent of the population works from home, and at least 39 percent work in office jobs. However, the county was classified as an expensive area, as 26 percent of households with a mortgage spend at least 30 percent of income on housing.

Here are the top 10 work from home locations, according to the study:

1. Forsyth County, Georgia
2. Douglas County, Colorado
3. Los Alamos County, New Mexico
4. Collin County, Texas
5. Loudoun County, Virginia
6. Hamilton County, Indiana
7. Williamson County, Tennessee
8. Delaware County, Ohio
9. Broomfield County, Colorado
10. Dallas County, Iowa

See the full study on the best work from home locations.