After years of debate about the future of the office, many employers now appear to have accepted that working from home – often in some hybrid configuration – is a lasting feature of business life. A new study by Chandan Economics argues that the implications extend well beyond workplace strategy, showing that remote work has materially changed rental affordability and the composition of renter households.
Chandan Economics finds that renters who work from home tend to earn more and, as a result, face lower median rent burdens than renters who commute to a physical workplace, even though the remote cohort typically pays higher monthly rents. Rent burden in the study is defined as rent relative to income and the income advantage of WFH renters is significant enough to reduce their rent‑to‑income share despite costlier housing.
In 2019, WFH renters and commuting renters carried roughly the same rent burden, at 25.5% and 25.7% of income, respectively. By 2024, that picture flipped: the median rent burden for employees working from home fell to 24.8%, while the rent burden for commuters rose to 27.6%.
Higher Rents, Lower Burdens
The report highlights a widening income gap between the two renter groups over the same period. By 2024, median household income among WFH renters had reached $90,000, compared with $65,000 for non‑WFH renters who commute to work. This spread in earnings is central to explaining why remote workers can carry higher nominal rents yet still report lower rent burdens.
Chandan Economics notes that median monthly gross rent for WFH renter households was $1,900 in 2024, versus $1,560 for those who commute.
The study emphasizes that this difference is not primarily due to remote workers migrating en masse to cheaper rental markets, but rather to their higher incomes giving them an affordability advantage regardless of location. For the higher‑paid WFH cohort, burdens declined even when payment levels did not, as their income growth outpaced rent increases.
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