Key Takeaways
- These four towns—Lafayette, Louisiana; Pella, Iowa; Chattanooga, Tennessee; and Fairlawn, Ohio—offer crawfish boils, tulip festivals, mountain hikes, and access to national parks, plus 10-gigabit municipal internet.
- Median home prices in these towns run 14% to 35% below the national average, with costs of living 4% to 14% lower.
About 14% of Americans now work remotely, more than double the percentage before the pandemic. If you’re one of them, you likely need little more to work than some space and a solid internet connection.
If you can log in from anywhere, why not do it somewhere cheaper? These four towns offer great locales for remote workers, with median home prices 14% to 35% below the national average, and costs of living 4% to 14% lower than the national average. Plus, each has its own perks, from Cajun culture to Appalachian hiking trails.
Lafayette, Louisiana
Two and a half hours west of New Orleans, Lafayette (population: 122,300) sits in the heart of Cajun and Creole country. Downtown is full of galleries, splash pads, and restaurants, and there are tons of local concerts on the calendar. Day trips include Avery Island, where Tabasco is made, and Breaux Bridge, the “Crawfish Capital of the World.”
The city has a municipal broadband network with speeds of 10 gigabits per second or higher. There are plenty of public places (coffee shops, museums, coworking spaces) to get some work done. Trendy Spaces and Downtown WORKSpace, for example, have quiet work stations and large conference rooms. And the public library is a hub of activity—there’s even a dog park…