The coronavirus pandemic has forced many people to work from home indefinitely — in mid-May, 68% of Americans were still working from home in order to avoid the virus. For some employees, that arrangement is likely to become permanent.

Several major tech firms have announced that they'll either substantially loosen or make permanent their current remote work policies. And other companies can expect more interest from employees in telecommuting. About half of employees have found they enjoy working from home, regardless of the pandemic.

If you do end up taking a remote job or your current gig decides to let you telecommute permanently, one of the most important decisions you can make is where you live and work. If your home doubles as your office, there are two things you will require: sufficient space and reliable internet.

Based on these two criteria, Grow set out to determine the best cities in America for remote workers. To do this, we looked at rental data from property listing service RentCafé and internet affordability data from ISP comparison and research site BroadbandNow. Using RentCafé's data, we determined the average monthly rent and space, per tenant, for apartments in 113 of America's largest cities. Those numbers were then weighed against those cities' access to broadband internet for under $60 per month.

• Access to broadband for $60 or less: 98%
• Area per person: 598 square feet
• Rent per space per person: $547/month
• Average people per apartment: 1.3

• Access to broadband for $60 or less: 85%
• Area per person: 592 square feet
• Rent per space per person: $537/month
• Average people per apartment: 1.5

• Access to broadband for $60 or less: 96%
• Area per person: 591 square feet
• Rent per space per person: $640/month
• Average people per apartment: 1.5

• Access to broadband for $60 or less: 93%
• Area per person: 567 square feet
• Rent per space per person: $599/month
• Average people per apartment: 1.6

• Access to broadband for $60 or less: 86%
• Area per person: 551 square feet
• Rent per space per person: $564/month
• Average people per apartment: 1.5

• Access to broadband for $60 or less: 83%
• Area per person: 590 square feet
• Rent per space per person: $584/month
• Average people per apartment: 1.5

• Access to broadband for $60 or less: 93%
• Area per person: 656 square feet
• Rent per space per person: $758/month
• Average people per apartment: 1.3

• Access to broadband for $60 or less: 72%
• Area per person: 671 square feet
• Rent per space per person: $602/month
• Average people per apartment: 1.4

• Access to broadband for $60 or less: 81%
• Area per person: 641 square feet
• Rent per space per person: $657/month
• Average people per apartment: 1.4

• Access to broadband for $60 or less: 97%
• Area per person: 678 square feet
• Rent per space per person: $896/month
• Average people per apartment: 1.3

• Access to broadband for $60 or less: 93%
• Area per person: 461 square feet
• Rent per space per person: $575/month
• Average people per apartment: 1.9

• Access to broadband for $60 or less: 94%
• Area per person: 463 square feet
• Rent per space per person: $589/month
• Average people per apartment: 1.8

• Access to broadband for $60 or less: 72%
• Area per person: 516 square feet
• Rent per space per person: $505/month
• Average people per apartment: 1.7

• Access to broadband for $60 or less: 76%
• Area per person: 601 square feet
• Rent per space per person: $613/month
• Average people per apartment: 1.6

• Access to broadband for $60 or less: 74%
• Area per person: 629 square feet
• Rent per space per person: $630/month
• Average people per apartment: 1.6

Appropriately enough, remote work is a popular option in and around many of these places. Several of these cities pop up on a MoneyPenny analysis of the cities with the most remote workers, released in February and based on Census data, for example. Tampa and Boise both appear in the top 15: Roughly 7% of each city's population works from home. 

Several of the cities on our list are suburbs or satellites of the bigger and more expensive cities on MoneyPenny's list. Arlington and Garland are both in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex while Tacoma is a suburb of Seattle. Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, and Pompano Beach are all within an hour of Miami.

That six of Grow's top 15 cities are in either Texas or Florida makes sense: The states with the most remote workers tend to be the states with the most people in them, and California, Texas, New York, and Florida have topped FlexJobs' list of states with the highest number of remote job listings since the start of 2019. If you do decide to switch jobs and want to continue working from home, these are the places where you will likely find the most opportunities.

In the states with the highest proportion of remote workers, you may also find employers who are more comfortable with remote arrangements. Colorado tops that list, with 7.7% of employees in the state working from home, according to the Census Bureau. Idaho also shows up prominently. Over 6% of Idaho employees work from home, and Boise is a growing tech hub for people seeking to escape Silicon Valley.

One common misconception about remote work is that employers allow employees to do it from anywhere. In reality, a 95% of remote jobs have some kind of geographic requirement, according to a recent survey from FlexJobs. Those requirements, however, can vary quite a bit.

"Some companies will only hire from the state where they are headquartered. Others hire in several, but not most states. And some will hire in almost, but not all, states," says Brie Weiler Reynolds, a career development manager and coach at FlexJobs. Those geographic restrictions are usually related to job certification or licensing regulations or differing tax laws in various states, according to Reynolds, and they don't tend to be more common in any specific industry.

When moving, experts say it's important to also consider the tax situation in your new state, and ask if your employer will help with moving or living expenses.

If you're planning to work remotely, experts say Internet connectivity and costs are a key factor to investigate before you relocate.

For most remote work, you don't necessarily need a blisteringly fast connection. Unless your job involves working with and transferring large files, like databases or high-resolution media, you just need something that's reasonably fast and reliable, according to Tyler Cooper, editor in chief at BroadbandNow.

"If we're talking about a family of five, and they're all at home, and they're doing online school, and parents trying to work, everyone's trying to do the same thing throughout the day, they're splitting that bandwidth between them," Cooper says.