Two-thirds of Americans surveyed by Zillow say they are working from home in a room that’s not a dedicated office.
At the same time, Zillow said home listings mentioning a home office have jumped about 10 percent since April 2019.
“In thinking about the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, remote work stands out as perhaps the biggest change agent,” Zillow Senior Principal Economist Skylar Olsen said in a release. “Changes in the options available to us can shift our preferences and decision making.
“Remote work allows for precious time savings without a commute and potentially more affordable living away from job centers, but it can come with productivity and sanity costs without the proper tools,” Olsen said. “Those costs can be mitigated by certain home features, namely a quiet and secluded place to work, so we may see a growing premium on homes with room for an office or other place to comfortably work, which could in turn shift the types of new homes that come on the market.”
Most survey respondents told Zillow they’d consider a move if allowed to work remotely long-term, and that homes with dedicated offices or at least more space to help find a quiet spot to work are most desirable.
Two-thirds of respondents said they have repurposed an area of their home such as a living room, dining room or bedroom into an office space.
Zillow said such make-shift spaces are not designed to support long hours in front of a computer and can bring distractions and other frustrations, which has placed a premium on a quiet, separated workspace.