Two elements that can help make working at home ideal are fast internet and low-cost housing. Ookla and Zillow teamed up to determine which cities offer the best of both.
Is working at home your idea of heaven on earth? Well, it might turn out to be more like the Bad Place than the Good Place when your internet speed is unreliable. Sure, you save money when you don’t have to commute or buy overpriced lunches, but shelling out a bundle for housing kind of defeats that budgetary win.
Ideally, then, remote workers should live in a place that has fast, reliable internet and low-cost housing. Ookla, which operates Speedtest.net (and is owned by PCMag’s parent company, Ziff Davis), took a look at internet speed data from 100 US metro areas to determine which ones had the fastest download and upload times; it also took performance at the highest and lowest tiers into consideration.
Ookla then compared that data with real-estate company Zillow’s data on median home value in the same metro areas. Cities that ranked comparatively high for internet speed and low for home value made this top 10 list. Chattanooga, TN is in first place, followed by Shreveport, LA and Kansas City, MO in second and third, respectively. (As a child of Pittsburgh, I must point out its respectable fifth-place position.)
Take a look at the full report for more details—and for those who’d like to live west of Texas, to see more cities that came close to the top 10.
How fast is your internet? Test it here.