Top 10 Cities To Live In After The COVID-19 Pandemic - TODAY

Over a year into the coronavirus pandemic, Minnesotans may be asking themselves why they endure the freezing winter or New Yorkers why they choose to live shoulder to shoulder. The answer for many? Work.

But the pandemic has led millions of Americans to remote work, making them reconsider what is most important to them as they establish new roots with an eye toward a return to normalcy. According to Pew Research, 1 in 5 U.S. adults (about 22%) say they either changed their residence due to the pandemic or know someone who did.

Real estate expert Stefani Berkin, President of R New York, the fifth-largest real estate company in New York City, says that Americans are beginning to reconsider their priorities when buying a house. According to Berkin, homebuyers are thinking less and less about proximity to their workplace when looking for a home.

“Americans are putting more emphasis on quality of life,” Berkin said, taking into account factors like affordability, population density, diversity, local school systems, health care, environment and recreation activities.

Even those not moving to new locations have new priorities when it comes to buying. “People haven’t really been forced to reconsider and redefine what (home) means until there was a global pandemic,” Berkin told TODAY. While homes were once a place for family gatherings, recreation time, and sleep; they are now day care centers, gyms, offices and even classrooms. Berkin notes that homebuyers are realizing they need their homes to function in new ways while simultaneously realizing that their homes can be anywhere they want.

Many companies including Twitter, Zillow and REI have announced that they will let employees permanently work from home. Once tied down to the physical office, free-roaming Americans are now on a hunt for the best work-from-home residences in the best destinations. And for all of the so-called COVID nomads who have moved in with family or traded cubicles for beaches, the question now becomes where they will settle when it is all over.

Berkin has some advice; here is her list of the top 10 cities to live in after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Atlanta, Georgia

Median home sale price: $311,092