Ask HN: Has remote work made you move to a new location or consider it?

I regret not moving immediately. Our home is not suitable for this occupation (hehe)

Yes, my partner and I switched to remote work in 2016. Since then we stopped living in cities and started living part of the year at the beach and part of the year next to a lake near a national park. We spend a few months a year in the city to catch up with people and soak in the cultural vibes. Most of the time we are near family.

No.

I would love to move. My wife doesn't.

Yes, but to be closer to my parents, and to nature.

I didn’t like WFH at first to be honest. But I’ve grown used to it and appreciate the flexibility especially with kids.

Waiting for Starlink

Originally joined a company with an office in the capital, but due to the pandemic they committed to remote first from now on. I’ve now moved to a city on the coast with 70k people (capital had almost 2 million), and it is a 30 min train ride to the capital. Cost of living is roughly only 10% cheaper but the pace and apparent quality of life is much improved.

Yes, moved from SF North Bay / wine country to Buffalo NY to be closer to extended family, lower cost of living. I miss wine country, but it's been a good move. My company is based in EST so it's easier. I worry a bit about next job but it'll be OK I suspect. I work in IT management and software development in the past. It's no easy choice, but since we had kids the family factor won out.

Already live in the midwest but remote work has allowed me to apply and interview for much higher-paying jobs at FAANG companies

I’m in the process of moving (back) to a countryside location.

I lived there a number of years ago and split my time in a tech job 2 to 3 days a week in the office and the remainder back home working remotely. It was a struggle - Slack etc wasn’t a thing at that point and the communication was always strained while I was remote. I realised at some point that being remote was going to be career limiting and relocated close to a city with a large tech scene here in the UK. I didn’t resent the move as such, but I’d always missed being in the countryside and the town I’d adopted as home.

Now with the tech scene (certainly here in the UK) having embraced remote working on what appears to be a permanent basis I’m taking the opportunity to move back there and work mostly remotely. Luckily the company I work for has a great approach to this and there doesn’t seem any shortage of other tech companies offering it too. Of course there is always the risk that this will be limiting in the long run, but it feels like the current outlook is on the side of taking that risk. I realised over COVID lockdowns how much I missed living there, so I’ve decided it’s an important move for me personally.

COVID has been awful in so many ways, but a positive coming out of it is the way it has forced some realisations about how we work. For me the realisation has been that it isn’t about having a certain number of days or fixed times in the office - I think this is pretty old fashioned thinking. But instead committing to getting together in person with colleagues and clients for the right activities, where it really adds value.

I work somewhere WFH doesn’t make much sense and watching as most of my coworkers fight against management on coming back. It’s more than a little weird to be on the sidelines on this.

OP: you should stay near your parents as they sound important to you. You’re not missing out. I’d say look for ways to benefit.

No, there are plenty of other reasons to stay in a city other than work. Culture, nightlife, friends for example.

If you live in a city and all you do there is go to work, you’re kinda missing the point imho because you could do that much cheaper elsewhere.

I'd love too. Ideally I'd leave the UK entirely if I could. I need to finish my probation and see from there...

After my company went remote, my life partner and I had the fortune in spring of 2020 to be able to temporarily relocate from our 1BR condo in Washington, DC to her family's "summer" house on Cape Cod in Massachusetts (USA). Typically the house is shared among their extended family and different groups reserve it for a week or two each in the summer, but in '20 it was limited to my partner and her three siblings and their partners.

We stayed there from June to October, and after going home to DC for a spell came back to the Cape for Thanksgiving and then again for some long stretches in '21, including during the winter. It has been a great retreat from the city during these pandemic years.

My partner has an aunt and uncle who have lived year round in the same town on the Cape for something like 30 years. I also have an aunt who has lived there year round with her family for a similar amount of time in the neighboring town. I grew up visiting the Cape most summers and always loved it, but only ever thought of it as a summer place.

I've always thought of myself as a city person, but now we're planning to buy in one of these towns and move there permanently. I couldn't be more excited.

The company I work for has been very progressive in our work model over the past year and a half, and we've now gone fully distributed -- I plan to work remote forever.

The main challenge for us now is that the housing market on the Cape is a mess. In '20 prices skyrocketed. By '21 demand had cooled somewhat, but there has been no inventory. We'll see what things look like come this spring. Fortunately we can temporarily live in our family's houses while we search and prepare to sell or lease our condo here in DC.

I left the US ~5 years ago after getting a fully remote position. I'd probably quit if they ever told me I had to come back. I miss family and old friends of course but I can't deny that I live a significantly better life now. It's one of the best decisions I've ever made.

I live in a remote area of Pakistan, a very beautiful place 100000% opposite of main Pakistan. I work for a US based company from here. The biggest expense is internet (200 USD per month sett-lite based internet). All others are home grown like fruits, vegetable, flour, egg, meat. I will not move to any other place permanently. However travel Dubai, Turkey and Thailand once in a year to grab beer! I love this rhythm of WFH.

No. I have chosen the big city (Bogotá, Colombia) and neighbourhood I want to live independently from any employer, so there is no reason to change just because of remote work. For the time being I can't imagine myself living on the countryside or even suburbs.

As my live situation changes over time I will continuously revise my/our priorities and thus place to live, but for now I'm happy where I am.

So the permanent home wont change for a while likely, but unlike pre-pandemic I spend days or weeks at the time on the countryside working from there and from some point on next year I want to spent more time, couple months per year, back in Europe to be closer with family/friends and some aspects of European culture I miss. New work policies definitely make this plan easier. But if I'm committed I would find a way to do this pandemic changes or not.

I am strongly considering Manhattan. The cost of living is similar to SF but the urban amenities and energy are on a whole other level.

However it’s a bit daunting to get an office or an extra bedroom there at my own expense. I’m not sure I’m up for working from my living room or bedroom.

I have considered it and can imagine myself moving for short bursts to different parts of the country. I have cats, so I can't go full nomad and don't want to uproot them too much, but I can totally imagine moving between a couple of locations 1-2 times a year if my partner and I felt like it. It just feels so freeing to have the option, even if I don't end up doing it.

I moved to a cheaper, more remote area. But as a single person, I feel more isolated here and I'm now considering moving again. I don't want to start paying silly money to live close to work again, though (nor do I want to commute).

I moved from Sydney, Australia to France (same company, different team) - has been hard adjusting to a new culture and new team at the same time, but now I've got access to interviewing with companies on this side of the world, which is nice.

I didn’t permanently move, but took advantage of WFH to spend 9 month closer to family in Eastern WA/Idaho.

I’m not going to lie, it was a pretty eye opening experience going from the Bay Area to a small town. The pace was more calm and I realized I could still get access to 80% of what I had in the Bay Area. Walking by the lake and having people say “good evening” was a nice change. Being able to drive 10 min and be in the middle of nature was great.

I eventually returned to SF, and I’m not sure right now in my life is a good time for a permanent move, but it certainly had its appeal.

I feel like a mid-sized town - has most amenities, some places to splurge and access to an airport would be ideal - the best trade off between what SF offers and what smaller towns offer.

I think the problem is the travel disruption has reall LT thrown things off. If I were to be stuck for 12 months in one place, I’d take SF (or another big city). If I knew I could easily jump on a cheap flight, the smaller cities start to seem much more appealing.

I moved from DC to Vermont about 15 years ago. I lost the job I had when I first moved when they eliminated remote work and I refused to move back, and for a while I struggled a bit to find remote work. Ultimately I found a local job which I love and I loved walking in to work every day in all weather, about 2.5 miles. Then COVID struck and the company went remote and has decided to stay remote. As it grows its workforce is ever more dispersed (we intend to stop growing in the near future to preserve the character of the company). I have never regretted my decision. I make much more use of the opportunities the country provides than I did of the opportunities in the city. Also, the rest of the members of my immediate family, and much of my extended family, have made the same decision, so I now live closer to them.

I've thought about it but I end up discarding the idea because even if I move, if I want to get another job I'd have to move back to increase my chances to get another job, due to the way the job market works here.

Yes, just before the pandemic we moved from a major city out to a rural, mountainous area. The area we moved to is much quieter and more full of nature, and yet we can somehow get fiber/gigabit internet while we could only get cable in the city. I hope to never have to go back. I don't miss the traffic or airplanes or crime. I do miss some of the entertainment opportunities, but it's only 2 hours to the city and there are plenty of outdoor activities to do now. My biggest complaint is lack of good restaurants, though this has prompted us to learn to cook better.