The Most & Least Affordable Areas for Coworking in the U.S.
One of the most commonly touted advantages of coworking is its affordability. With the possibility of buying memberships for just a couple of months at a time, or even day passes for your occasional office needs, coworking doesn’t lock you into a years-long lease in the same way that a traditional office would.
However, coworking memberships don’t just differ in the amenities and benefits they grant you. Rather, costs may differ greatly based on a variety of factors, including location. So, to determine which areas in the country had the most and least expensive coworking offices, CoworkingCafe ranked all metro areas in the U.S. based on the costs for various types of coworking memberships.
Inland Empire, Calif., & Albany, N.Y., Feature Most Expensive Open Space Coworking Subscriptions
When exclusively looking at hot desks and open spaces, two locations on opposite coasts recorded the highest median prices. Specifically, Inland Empire, Calif., and Albany, N.Y., both came in at $250 per month per person for a hot-desk membership. Notably, open-space coworking memberships offer freelancers, solopreneurs, and small businesses the opportunity to work in a professional space with all of the office amenities and services that one might expect, but without the considerable overhead of a traditional office.
The next-most expensive coworking location for hot desks was Hampton Roads, Va., a metro area that includes Norfolk and Virginia Beach. Here, the average cost for a hot desk was $225 per month. Louisville, Ky., and Buffalo, N.Y., rounded out the top five with $223 and $213 median price tags, respectively.
At the other end of the spectrum, Philadelphia; Phoenix; Tampa Bay, Fla.; San Jose, Calif.; and Las Vegas all featured the cheapest open space subscriptions in the nation at $93 per month. The affordability in these relatively larger metro areas is explained by the availability of Regus locations because the operator prices its open-space subscriptions around that level nationally.
Priciest Dedicated Desks Found in Santa Barbara, Calif., & Charleston, S.C.
While a hot desk has notable advantages, some workers might prefer to enjoy the comfort of the same workspace each day. For them, a dedicated desk might provide the best of both worlds — a characteristic coworking experience, plus a desk all to yourself.
Next, another California market took the top spot in the dedicated desks category, as well. This time, Santa Barbara took #1 with a price per month of $475, ahead of Charleston, S.C., where median prices stood at $452.
Unlike hot desks, some high-demand office and coworking markets in the nation also featured some of the most expensive dedicated desks. To that end, this type of subscription in New York City would cost you $450 per month, on average, while the median in Washington, D.C., stood at $412. Honolulu came in right between them with a median of $440.
At the same time, the most affordable locations for a dedicated desk included entries such as Indianapolis ($204); Pittsburgh ($225); Durham-Chapel Hill, N.C. ($226); Cincinnati ($228); and Milwaukee ($231).
The study also reviewed median virtual office costs, analyzing the locations where remote workers or companies wanted a steady business address without being tied down to a physical location. In this category, Nashville, Tenn.; Cincinnati; and San Antonio were the most expensive locations ($215, $160 and $150, respectively), while Austin, Texas, was the most affordable ($48 per month).
For the full study and a look at CoworkingCafe’s methodology, check out the original ranking of coworking costs across the nation.
If you’re looking to join a coworking office yourself, here are some strong up-and-coming markets in the coworking scene.