More than 20% of Columbus workers are fully remote, according to a new report by Rent.

The site, for property owners and operators, ranked Columbus 28th in a list of best cities for hybrid work as part of its look into how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the workplace.

What is taken into account in the methodology for the rankings? Each city’s amount of coworking spaces, percentage of work from home employees, and cost of living, according to Rent.

But there’s more than those aspects to love when it comes to Columbus, according to Kenny McDonald, president and CEO of the Columbus Partnership.

“The Columbus Region offers the unique opportunity to fulfill your professional and personal ambitions,” McDonald said in a prepared statement on the ranking. “We offer a variety of lifestyle and housing options, and the ability to access world class cultural and sports venues at an affordable price.”

Remote and hybrid work — in which case workers spend part of their time at an office and part working remotely from home — has been stealing the headlines since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, causing droves of office workers to set up shop in their home offices, at their kitchen tables and in spare bedrooms.

Companies and other employers continue to make headlines for calling their workers back to the office, even if it’s on a hybrid basis.

Remote and hybrid work don’t seem to be going away and that it hasn’t just changed where people work, but where they live, concluded Rent.’s report (and yes, the company’s name is Rent. with a period).

What attracts hybrid workers to Columbus?

Hybrid workers may be drawn to cities because cost of living is lower and property is affordable, the report found.

As rent prices rose 4.77% nationally from December 2021 to December 2022, according to Rent., hybrid workers focused more on saving money, not on living close to a workplace they may not visit often, or at all.

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The average monthly rent for studios and one- and two bedroom apartments in Columbus falls between $1,251 and $1,623, according to Rent.

That’s up from this time last year, when the average was $1,106 to $1,494.

For comparison, average New York City rent falls between $4,064 and $7,943.

Columbus’ cost of living is below the national average, at 89.7%, according to Rent. About 214,000 of its 906,000 workers work from home, the site estimates.

Columbus also was the only Ohio city in the rankings of the 50 best cities for hybrid work and has 26 coworking spaces, which was taken into account in the rankings.

There are other work-related benefits to living in Columbus. If Columbus workers do have to travel to work in person, the capital city is a good place to do it in.

Earlier this year, a report ranked Columbus fifth in the nation when it comes to cities with the best commutes.

Drive on in: Columbus fifth best U.S. city for commuters, according to report

Yardi Kube, a coworking software platform, ranked Columbus that way due to motorists spending an average of 21.5 minutes’ drive to or from work in 2022, according to its report.

The average commute nationally was 26.4 minutes.

Is hybrid work here to stay?

In some U.S. cities, in-office attendance dropped 70% to 90% in 2020, according to the McKinsey Global Institute, the research arm of management consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

Two years later, the institute noted that in-office hours were 30% lower than pre-pandemic, with many U.S. workers going into the office 3.5 days per week.

Overall, Rent. found that the largest group, or 39%, of renters surveyed in a 2022 report said they were hybrid employees, and 31% said they worked from home full-time.

The best cities for hybrid work

The cities ranked the highest for best hybrid work are all over the country and vary in size, but cities in southern states dominate the top 10 with five spots. The top cities include:

1. Green Bay, Wisconsin

2. Orlando, Florida

3. Atlanta, Georgia

4. Rapid City, South Dakota

5. Greenville, South Carolina

6. Savannah, Georgia

7. Minneapolis, Minnesota

8. Everett, Washington

9. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

10. Tampa, Florida

dking@dispatch.com

@DanaeKing

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Study say Columbus is attractive to hybrid, remote workers. Here’s why