wfh life

How Fort Worth stacks up on list of cities with people who work from home

Don't forget to set that WFH alarm.

Working from home in Dallas-Fort Worth has many advantages, and according to a new SmartAsset study, Fort Worth is one of several North Texas cities with a significant number of remote workers.

The study found that Fort Worth has 72,190 remote workers, or 15.3 percent of the city's total workforce.

In terms of percentage, the big winner in DFW is Frisco, which has the second-most remote workers in the nation. Nearly 40 percent of all workers in Frisco, or approximately 46,400 people, work from home, SmartAsset found.

"With the most recent U.S. Census Bureau designating the average commute time to work across large cities at 25 minutes, remote workers may save four hours per week or more compared to their in-person counterparts," the report's author wrote.

The Dallas-Fort Worth area has been clocking in as one of the best metro areas for remote workers for a few years, which speaks volumes to the abundance of big employers that have expanded their reach into the Metroplex.

Other North Texas cities with a significant number of remote workers include Allen, with just under 19,000 employees (or 33.2 percent of all workers), earning the city No. 11 overall in SmartAsset's report. The commute time in Allen is 27.4 minutes.

Plano (No. 23) isn't too far behind with 29.4 percent of all employees in the city working from home, which translates to 46,616 people. A non-remote-working Plano resident's commute time 24.5 minutes, less than the national average.

McKinney (No. 49) barely skirts into the top 50 with 27,255 remote workers, or 24.5 percent of the workforce. Residents in McKinney who need to travel to work would only need to budget 26.1 minutes into their day to commute.

Dallas (No. 126) has the highest number of remote workers in North Texas, at 110,249 people, but technically falls behind nearly every other city since it only amounts to 16.4 percent of all workers. And despite the constant Dallas traffic, SmartAsset says the city's average commute time is on par with the national average, at 25.1 minutes. Take that with a grain of salt.

Fort Worth came in at No. 144, with 72,190 remote workers, or 15.3 percent of the workforce. Fort Worth commuters drive an average of 26.9 minutes to work, according to the report.

Other Dallas-Fort Worth cities in the top 200 and their percentages of remote workers include:

No. 54 – Richardson (23.8 percent, or 15,007 people)
No. 65 – Carrollton (22.4 percent, or 17,184 people)
No. 105 – Lewisville (18.5 percent, or 13,700 people)
No. 106 – Irving (18.4 percent, or 24,610 people)
No. 137 – Arlington (15.5 percent, or 31,948 people)
No. 182 – Denton (13.4 percent, or 10,866 people)
No. 198 – Garland (12.8 percent, or 15,664 people)

The city with the highest percentage of remote workers in the U.S. is Cary, North Carolina; 41.4 percent of all workers in Cary work from home, or 40,900 people. Commuters in Cary also have a better-than-average commute time of 22.2 minutes.

The U.S. city with the lowest percentage of remote workers is Beaumont, Texas. Only 3.7 percent of all workers in Beaumont work remotely, which is a little more than 1,700 people. Newark's 23.1-minute commute time, however, is better than the national average.

The top 10 cities with the greatest remote workforces in the nation are:

No. 1 – Cary, North Carolina
No. 2 – Frisco, Texas
No. 3 – Bellevue, Washington
No. 4 – Berkeley, California
No. 5 – Seattle, Washington
No. 6 – Arlington, Virginia
No. 7 – Fremont, California
No. 8. – Scottsdale, Arizona
No. 9 – Carlsbad, California
No. 10 – Washington, D.C.

The report analyzed 344 U.S. cities with populations of 100,000 people or more. Cities were ranked based on remote work data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2022 1-Year American Community Survey.

The report and its methodology can be found on smartasset.com.

dallas reports smartasset smartasset study workforce

University News

Univ of Texas at Arlington gets OK to proceed on west Fort Worth campus

Courtesy rendering

UTA West campus coming soon

A new university campus is in the works for west Fort Worth. According to a release, a proposal by the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) to purchase 51 acres of property in west Fort Worth got the thumbs up from the University of Texas System Board of Regents, paving the way for UTA West, a new campus that would be built in the Walsh Ranch development.

Advantageously positioned at the intersection of I-30 and I-20 at the western gateway of Fort Worth, the new campus could begin welcoming students as early as fall 2028.

UTA West will be developed as part of a multiyear plan to serve more than 10,000 students.

“Anytime the UT System can expand greater educational opportunity, access, and affordability to Texans, we’re going to do it,” says UT System Board of Regents chairman Kevin Eltife in a satement. “We’ve recently done it in east Texas and south Texas and now we’re heading west. We’re looking forward to planting a UT Arlington flag in west Fort Worth, currently the nation’s fastest growing city.”

"The western part of the metroplex has an ever-growing population, a plethora of student talent, and a wide breadth of opportunity for explosive economic advancement. UTA has long been a top supplier of talent to companies across Fort Worth, and this expansion will allow UTA to broaden its impact across our region,” said UTA President Jennifer Cowley.

Walsh Ranch is the 7,200-acre development in west Fort Worth that calls itself "Fort Worth's next great neighborhood," being developed with neighborhoods, town centers, mixed-use areas, and commercial space.

And now a university campus.

UTA in Fort Worth
The new campus would be only the latest in a decades-long partnership between UTA and the city of Fort Worth. That includes the UTA Research Institute (UTARI), a facility established in east Fort Worth in 1986; and the UTA Fort Worth Center, a continuing education center for the downtown Fort Worth community established in 2007.

In 2023, the UTA Institute of Urban Studies, the principal research center for the College of Architecture, Planning, and Public Affairs, opened at UTA’s Fort Worth Center with a mission is to conduct research and provide technical assistance to city and county governments, governmental agencies, and nonprofit organizations, and to offer education and teaching opportunities to individuals either already in or contemplating public service careers.

The University of Texas at Arlington is a comprehensive teaching, research, and public service institution with an enrollment of approximately 41,000 students, and is the second-largest institution in the UT System. In 2021, its combination of outstanding academics and innovative research contributed to its reaffirmation as a Carnegie R-1 “Very High Research Activity” institution, a significant milestone of excellence. The University is designated as a Hispanic Serving-Institution and an Asian American Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education and in 2022 earned the Seal of Excelencia for its commitment to accelerating Latino student success.