On February 16, 2023, the D.C. Policy Center’s chart of the week, A pandemic-induced exodus has broken the District’s population boom, was cited by the Commercial Observer:
Out-migration from the District to the suburbs led to a decrease of 23,000 residents in 2021, according to D.C. Policy Center, a record high in the last two decades, so it’s not surprising that more people are working from spaces outside the city.
“With construction permits in Washington, D.C., hindered by local policies, it makes sense that any new type of real estate — including commercial — would take root outside of the urban core,” the Policy Center report noted. “Furthermore, given that the federal government hasn’t ordered a return-to-work edict and its individual agencies have been favoring downsizing, it’s only natural that coworking spaces would provide a favorable solution to D.C.’s recent shifts in the work field.”
In fact, the Washington, D.C., region stands out as an outlier from most of the nation, with more suburban flex spaces than urban ones, as 67 percent of the metro’s coworking spaces are in the suburbs.
Read more: Coworking Spaces in Suburbs On the Rise | Commercial Observer
Related: A pandemic-induced exodus has broken the District’s population boom | D.C. Policy Center