March 2, 2022

Downtown Fargo Could Be Your WFH Haven

| By Mari Hall |

Downtown Fargo has seen an influx of remote workers in recent years who prioritize neighborhood amenities, low-maintenance living, and fast internet.

It’s no secret that the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic had radical impacts on the workforce, and one of the biggest revelations was the capacity for many careers to move to a remote work model. Suddenly, those whose jobs moved fully remote learned they could work from anywhere, and those looking for a career change learned they could get a job almost anywhere without the expense of relocating.

While the pandemic has ebbed and flowed, the number of fully remote career opportunities seems to be going strong, and many workplaces that didn’t previously offer a fully remote option, including tech giants like Facebook, Google, and IBM, are recognizing that this is key to attracting and keeping talented employees from across the country. In a study of telecommuting following the advent of COVID-19, Global Workplace Analytics learned that 82 percent of U.S. employees want at least one remote day each week, and 47 percent of millennials stated that they would change employers given the opportunity to work fully remote.

The benefits of working remotely, for many employees, seem to be limitless. No longer is your career tied to where you live. In fact, you could even theoretically work remotely while traveling. “The Baby Boomer-accepted notion of being tied to one city, fifty weeks a year with just a two-week vacation available for travel now seems downright archaic,” writes Chris Moody for Freethink.

This has unlocked a new layer of consideration for many: If I can do my job from anywhere, where do I want to live?

It might be surprising to some, but North Dakota is proving the winning answer for many. In a ranking of top states to work from remotely, CNBC put North Dakota at the top, citing items like reliable access to broadband internet and a low effective tax rate. These immensely practical reasons aren’t the only benefits to calling North Dakota home, though. The state is ranked #5 on WalletHub’s happiest state index, #14 in US News’s Best States Rankings, and #9 for the U.S. Prosperity Index.

North Dakotans don’t just settle for calling a place home. Instead, we come together as a community to invest time and money into making places truly special. “Communities across the state are revitalizing their downtowns so you’re seeing new amenities, updated attractions, more walkable neighborhoods, etc,” said North Dakota Commissioner of Commerce James Lieman in an article from Valley News Live.

Downtown Fargo’s revitalization is decades in the making, and today offers a fantastic environment for remote workers. Fargo itself is the largest city by population in our modest-sized state, and the downtown is the urban core with enough density and diversity to make every day full of possibilities. Our downtown has all the hallmarks of an urban center, but our closely knit community gives it a distinct small-town twist.