Study Shows Texas Cities' Affordability For Freelancers

AUSTIN, TEXAS — Shifting workplace trends and an ever-changing labor market have yielded a greater number of freelancers than ever before. But the question is: How affordable is freelancing in major U.S. cities, and how much side hustling such workers have to undertake to be less burdened financially?

Analysts at Commercial Café exhaustively researched the dynamics of various U.S. markets — including cities in Texas — in an attempt to answer such questions. But let's not beat around the bush, Austin freelancers: The capital city emerged as the priciest city in Texas for freelancers, where such workers need $43 an hour for their work or a 45.5-hour work week to be able to affora a private office and rent.

Co-working prices are slightly steeper in Plano,Texas, just outside Dallas, where freelancers would need to charge a $37.6/hour fee or work a 40-hour week to afford a private office and housing, as opposed to Dallas and Fort Worth, where hourly fees amount to $35.7 and $34.6, or a 37.7- and 36.5-hour week, respectively.

The most affordable market in Texas is Houston, where for $32/hour or a 34-hour work week a freelancer can afford all co-working plans presented in our study, all while never having to split housing expenses with a roommate, researchers found.

Elsewhere in the country, the top 15 is heavily dominated by cities in California, while the final entries are mostly Midwestern and Southern cities, making them more cost-effective locations for self-employed workers.

The study doesn't merely lay out the various dynamics of the studied markets, but provides a handy calculator to determine the hourly rate and number of hours a freelancer should be working to affording a co-working plan. To access the calculator, click here. For the full study, which includes some nifty graphs, click here.

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