Dive Brief:
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Teleworking is gaining in popularity as commute times lengthen, with a recent survey by Gallup showing that the share of Americans working from home in 2015 was 6.8 million (4.6%), a near-5% rise on the year before, The Washington Post reported.
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The average commute time nationwide in 2015 rose by 24 seconds from the year prior to 26.4 minutes. The trend is due in part to Americans returning to the suburbs while job centers shift back downtown.
- The number of workers with commutes of 45 minutes or more grew the most during the year, with the 45-minute-to-59-minute range rising 3.5%, the 60-minute-to-89-minute range increasing 5.1%, and the 90-plus-minute range up 8%.
Dive Insight:
The Gallup survey dovetails with a recent report from the National Association of Home Builders that found the percentage of U.S. workers doing some or all of their job from home rose to 24% in 2015 from 19% in 2003.
That shift presents an opportunity for homebuilders and remodelers to add dedicated work-from-home space to new or existing homes. Multifamily developers, too, are getting in on the trend by incorporating communal amenities like co-working space in their projects.
However, increases in construction costs in recent years make underlining the value proposition for such additional space a challenge. In the 2015 iteration of its Cost vs. Value Report, Remodeling noted that a midrange home-office remodel would recoup 48.7% of construction costs upon resale that year, compared with 48.9% reported in 2014 and 72.9% in 2005. (The publication didn't track the project type in 2016 or 2017.)
In an attempt to get resident buy-in and boost their bottom line on such projects, builders and remodelers can add extra utility to those spaces by rethinking home offices within the broader content of flexible space, such as a finished basement or multipurpose room. In the 2017 version of its survey, Remodeling noted that basement remodels garnered 70% of the initial investment upon resale while a family room addition retained 69.3%.
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