Americans Are Heading Back to the Office at Record Levels—and Back to These 5 Cities, Too

More and more people are logging off Zoom and heading back to the office.

New data from the Placer.ai Nationwide Office Building Index has found that office foot traffic nationwide has reached 72.2% of July 2019 levels. This amounts to the highest office attendance rates seen since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The top five cities with the highest percentage of office visits are Miami, at 90.6%; New York City, at 89.6%; Dallas, at 76.9%; Atlanta, at 76.7%; and Washington, DC, at 73.9%.

While these numbers suggest that more employees are ditching fully remote work, a hybrid model seems to remain the new normal—and this has affected where people live and shop for homes.

“The pandemic seems to have shifted buyer preferences to some degree,” says Hannah Jones, Realtor.com® senior economic research analyst. “Many home shoppers are looking to balance their personal and professional lives by buying in areas that are close enough to the office to commute a few days a week, but offer more space, lower prices, and a slower-paced lifestyle than a large metro.”

Below is a snapshot of the top five back-to-work cities and how they’re being affected.

Miami

Median list price: $650,000
Number of homes for sale: 12,839
Median days on the market: 66

During the height of the pandemic, home shoppers flocked to this vibrant coastal city to embrace the warm outdoors, according to Jones.

“Because there was the remote work option available to so many, Florida and mainly South Florida became the ultimate escape,” says real estate agent and investor Ron Myers, president of Ron Buys Florida Homes. “The sunny weather, no state income tax, and a lifestyle upgrade in many cases coupled with remote work flexibility were major draws.”

But as the pandemic waned and more people returned to the workplace, “in-office requirements may have pulled some buyers back to their original location,” Jones says.

As a result, the housing market in Miami has seen declining demand as of late. For buyers looking to purchase in The Magic City, there are some bargains to be had.

New York City

Median list price: $799,000
Number of homes for sale: 33,108
Median days on the market: 75

“During the pandemic, New York City saw a bigger dip in demand than Miami, Dallas, and Atlanta as buyers sought out new locales,” says Jones.

But as back-to-work policies pull people back to the Big Apple, this market has resumed its red-hot status among home shoppers.

“With more folks heading back to the office, the New York City market has seen steady growth,” says broker Sean Adu-Gyamfi, of Coldwell Banker Warburg in Manhattan. “However, many prospective buyers are still having trouble deciding how close or far away they want to be to their workplace.”

For those who are willing to make the trek, New York City suburbs often offer the best of both worlds and are attracting a lot of interest from buyers.

One ZIP code that’s within commuting distance of the city just made the Realtor.com Hottest ZIP Codes list: 07920 in Basking Ridge, NJ, which is just 37 miles from Manhattan.

“That ZIP code has seen a considerable pickup in demand since companies started to bring back in-office work,” says Jones in her analysis.

Dallas

Median list price: $449,000
Number of homes for sale: 5,184
Median days on the market: 47

Dallas became a pandemic hot spot, but as Americans return to the office, demand has cooled a bit.

“A few out-of-state buyers who located here during the pandemic have gone back,” says Paige Elliott of Elliott & Elliott Real Estate Group in Dallas. However, “our inventories are still low and are being absorbed by other buyers.”

Elliott is seeing multiple offers and houses going over the list price.

“Home prices are still on the rise,” she says. “Just not to the extent they were in the last few years. We had our typical cyclical slowdown for summer, but things are starting to move again.”

Atlanta

Median list price: $400,000
Number of homes for sale: 8,823
Median days on the market: 49

Atlanta is another city that attracted buyers during the pandemic, but since then has experienced a slowdown.

“In metro Atlanta where I work, I’ve noticed more people are moving to less dense suburban areas,” says real estate professional and attorney Bruce Ailion, of Re/Max Town & Country in Atlanta. “That’s one of the reasons these suburban housing markets have shown strength, whereas urban housing has not done as well in the recent cycle.”

Housing close to office hubs in the urban core had often been exorbitantly expensive, forcing workers to live far from their offices and endure hourslong commutes. Yet Ailion says more companies are starting to move to the burbs as well.

“Many companies are choosing to give up their more expensive space in Atlanta’s central business district and opt for less expensive locations closer to their workforce to encourage people back to the office,” he says. “Bringing the office to the less developed suburban markets creates the opportunity for more workers to be able to afford to live much closer to work. This allows people to attain a much better work-life balance.”

Washington, DC

Median list price: $592,450
Number of homes for sale: 8,156
Median days on the market: 49

Areas within commuting distance of large Northeast business hubs such as Washington, DC, are exceedingly popular with today’s buyers, according to Jones. If people can’t afford to live in DC proper, they often consider nearby suburbs such as Arlington, VA; Fairfax, VA; or Rockville, MD.

“If the multiple-offers situations in DC suburbs and homes selling for upward of $100,000 over the asking price are any indicator, I’d say this hub is very popular with buyers,” explains Cedric Stewart, a real estate agent at Keller Williams in Washington, DC.

The return to office has forced many people to move back to the area, which Stewart says “is evident in the increasing amount of traffic.”

Although there was a mass exodus in DC during the pandemic, people are starting to dive back into the hustle and bustle of the city, especially during this election season.

“The impact of an election cycle can be felt throughout the metropolis, as the governmental power emanates from the capital city,” says Stewart.