USA Today: Pittsfield “Biggest Winner” as Americans Work from Home

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the lives of people across the globe and right here at home. Day-to-day routines have morphed dramatically from what they were a year ago. Where and how people perform their jobs tops that list.

In the last 12 months, millions of Americans shifted from commuting to an office on a daily basis to working from home, performing jobs remotely.

Vaccine roll-outs in the U.S. continue to move along and many have hope that the end of the pandemic is in sight, however, that doesn't mean experts see the work from home trend coming to an end anytime soon.

USA Today just released a report on the U.S. cities that could be the biggest "winners" and the biggest "losers" as Americans settle into the work from home lifestyle. This trend which allows many employees to work anywhere is likely to cause a reshuffling in many of the country's metro areas with some losing residents no longer tied to local offices.

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The article reports that Moody’s Analytics found that Northeast cities are most vulnerable to an exodus of residents, which only benefits a place like Berkshire County, adjacent to both New York City and Boston. USA Today believes that the possible influx in population puts Pittsfield in a position to be one of the countries "biggest winners" from this resettling.

People are now free to choose where they live detached from where they work

Moody’s Analytics economist Dante DeAntonio.

In order to identify cities that stand to gain the most from the remote work shift, economists from Moody "simply homed in on those cities with a relatively low cost of living and high quality of life. Keep in mind there’s no exact science to the rankings."

Here's what they had to say about Pittsfield, which was listed as one of the five metro areas that could gain from the remote work trend:

Pittsfield, Mass.

The vibrant art community in the heart of the Berkshires has lots of green space. It’s at the 53 percentile in affordability and 90.2 percentile in quality of life.

Recent trends in The Berkshires' real estate market also corroborate those theories as homes continue to fly off the market, scooped up by both local and out of area buyers. With beautiful homes going for a fraction of the price they'd be in NYC or Boston, coupled with a short commute back to said cities when necessary, buyers are finding gold in The Berkshires.

According to a PricewaterhouseCoopers survey conducted November 24 - December 5, thirteen percent of executives say they’ll close their offices for good. Reports note that both PricewaterhouseCoopers and Moody, tend to poll larger firms and says smaller businesses maybe even more willing to let employees telecommute.