SC city is one of America’s best places to work remotely, a trend that’s here to stay

Add one more to Greenville’s best-in-the-nation honors, the city’s third in the past six months.

This time, Greenville has been included among the best places to work remotely, a goal city leaders have thought about increasingly since the coronavirus pandemic began a year ago.

Greenville was listed as No. 9 on Money magazine’s new list of best remote working cities. Last year, Conde Nast included Greenville on its best small cities and friendliest cities lists.

Money editors said they analyzed data from 2,000 cities to make their selections. They looked at cost of living, safety and quality of education, primarily, but also took into consideration availability of day care, broadband internet access, recreational activities and number of pharmacies.

Greenville ranked No. 9 of 10 cities honored.

The magazine found Greenville had the most restaurants per capita of all cities on the list, at 750 per 70,000 residents. It also was the most affordable, noting the median home price at $250,000.

“Downtown Greenville is the place to be at any time of day, with its store- and restaurant-lined streets, brightly lit sidewalks, and outdoor plazas. It also has the most hospitals per person at nine,” the magazine said.

The magazine quoted the Economic Policy Institute as saying Greenville County’s average cost for child care is about $500 for one child. It also found almost half of residents are within a 10 minute walk of a park.

Greenville City Manager John McDonough said in an interview last year the city was well positioned to take advantage of the work remote edict by companies all over the country during the pandemic. He cited cost of living, quality of life and climate as factors.

Money magazine said the Census Bureau found 38% of people in the United States are working remotely or have a family member who is. That list includes some major companies such as Target, Google and Ford, which have extended working from home through at least July.

Other companies such as Twitter and Dropbox may do so permanently. Uber has allowed employees to work from home until June and gave them a $500 stipend to open a home office, Entrepreneur magazine reported.

Outdoor retailer REI decided to sell its 8-acre campus in Washington state before it ever moved into it, the magazine reported.

The other cities on Money magazine list of best places to work remotely begin with No. 1 Reston, Virginia; followed by Lower Merion, Pennsylvania; Naperville, Illinois; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Roseville, California; Parker, Colorado; Cedar Park, Texas’ Portland, Oregon; and Tewksbury, Massachusetts.