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Tennessee Is the 15th Most Affordable State to Size Up for a Home Office

Feb 24, 2021 at 11:00 am by WGNS

Due to geographic differences in rent and median earnings, it is more feasible to rent an additional bedroom in some places than in others. Sizing up is most affordable in the Midwest. In Wisconsin and Nebraska, an additional bedroom costs $215–$220 per month, or just 6.6 percent of monthly income for renters. Sizing up is least affordable in California and Hawaii where adding a bedroom costs an additional $531–$672 per month, or 11.2 and 13.3 percent of income, respectively.

One of the COVID-19 pandemic’s biggest impacts on the labor market has been the remarkable shift to working from home. While working from home is not new, the U.S. has never seen remote work at the current scale. A recent Gallup poll from the fall shows that a whopping 58 percent of U.S. workers were working remotely at least part of the time, yet many lacked sufficient space at home to do so effectively.

To find the most affordable locations to size up for a home office, researchers at Filterbuy analyzed the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2019 American Community Survey and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The researchers ranked states according to the cost of an additional bedroom as a percentage of renter income. Researchers also calculated median monthly rent for a 1-bedroom, 2-bedroom, 3-bedroom, and 4-bedroom apartment.

The analysis found that the median monthly income for renters in Tennessee is $3,047. The median cost of sizing up for an additional bedroom is $232 per month, or about 7.6% of the median monthly income in Tennessee. Out of all states, Tennessee is the 15th most affordable to size up for a home office. 

Here is a summary of the data for Tennessee:

Additional bedroom cost as a percentage of income: 7.6%
Median monthly cost for an additional bedroom: $232
Median monthly income for renters: $3,047
Median monthly rent: $771 (1-br), $936 (2-br), $1,242 (3-br), $1,468 (4-br)

For reference, here are the statistics for the entire United States:

Additional bedroom cost as a percentage of income: 9.0%
Median monthly cost for an additional bedroom: $317
Median monthly income for renters: $3,540
Median monthly rent: $1,053 (1-br), $1,293 (2-br), $1,723 (3-br), $2,005 (4-br)

For more information, a detailed methodology, and complete results, you can find the original report on Filterbuy’s website: https://filterbuy.com/resources/affordable-cities-for-home-office/.

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