Move to Lafayette, LA — and Bring Your Job With You
This region offers the perfect WFH setup.
Lafayette, Louisiana, is an idyllic city that’s remarkable for many reasons — from its extraordinarily welcoming community to its exceptional food and great career opportunities. But what some might not know about this area is that it is set up in a way that remote workers can thrive.
Last year, virtual work experience company Forage named Lafayette one of the “Best Small Cities for Remote Workers,” crediting its affordability (median home value: $206,000, Zillow June 2023), library funding ($96.53 per capita), low unemployment rate (3.4% in 2022), and expansive internet capabilities as contributing factors. There’s also no shortage of cool spaces to work in if you need a break from your house, as Lafayette is home to several coworking spaces and various coffee shops, libraries and museums, all of which are a quick drive from anywhere in the city. Plus, when you’re finished with work for the day, there’s so much to see, do and eat in Lafayette that you can stay occupied and entertained for the entirety of your career and beyond.
Innovative and Connected
Lafayette has a storied history concerning its fast, widespread connectivity. In the early 2000s, Lafayette was one of the first municipal areas to bring fiber optic communication directly into the home. As a result, the city quickly grew to have one of the fastest internet networks in the country. Today, nearly 95% of residents in Lafayette have access to broadband with speeds of 250 Mbps or greater. There was a communal effort to bring fast internet to the region.
“The goal wasn’t initially for LUS to provide internet service. We just wanted the incumbents to bring it to Lafayette. But as a community, we took it into our own hands,” says Ryan Meche, director of LUS Fiber, a high-speed fiber network and municipally owned subsidiary of Lafayette Utilities System.
Meche refers to the people of Lafayette voting under the Local Government Fair Competition Act in 2004 to bring fiber connectivity to the city. LUS served its first customer in February 2009.
Meche notes that LUS’ team is committed to excellence.
“Our customer service representatives and our tech support are all our neighbors,” he says. “It’s like a big family taking care of one another, with a focus on reliability and uptime. In this region, we are prepared for natural disasters, and we know that our network has to be resilient. Everyone on staff is deemed essential personnel, so if there is a natural disaster, everyone works until there’s 100% restoration.”
Over the next 18 months, Meche says LUS will launch over 2 million feet of fiber in the Acadiana region, expanding its reach and helping underserved areas.
“We consider this infrastructure to be another main utility,” he says, adding that LUS maintains competitively low pricing options, which increases its accessibility to residents. “Plentiful fiber is great, but it’s also affordable.”
Always Something to Do
The isolation that can come with working remotely is combated by Lafayette’s friendliness, warmth and ample opportunities to connect.
Kate Durio, a remote worker for Sound Diplomacy, a global research and strategy consultancy that’s based across the UK, Europe, North America and Latin America, lives in Lafayette and works primarily from home, but she used to occasionally rent a desk and coworking space in an art gallery downtown. She grew up in nearby Opelousas, which is roughly 30 minutes from Lafayette, and went elsewhere for college before returning to the area.
“Growing up here and leaving, I had a heightened sense of appreciation for growing up in this part of the world,” she says. “The culture of Louisiana, especially the greater Lafayette area, is not like any other place. It’s a family-friendly place to be and working from home affords me the opportunity to live somewhere that I like to live and not just where my job is.”
Some of the entertainment options that both Meche and Durio speak to include regular festivals and events as well as activities that transcend age. Speaking of activities, the Lafayette Parish is celebrating its bicentennial with a series of events throughout 2023. Check out the list of events here.
“The thing I love so much about our culture is that you see people from 2 to 92 doing the same stuff, and I think that’s the secret to why it’s so family friendly and culturally rich. There’s not a lot of separation.”
Kate Durio, Remote Worker
Plentiful, Affordable Housing
Kimberly Lafleur, a broker associate for Latter & Blum, has been a real estate professional for 10 years and says the Lafayette area has diversified since the 1980s, allowing the housing market to remain relatively stable.
“In the last few years, we’ve experienced a great amount of appreciation,” she says. “We’re also protected by external factors that may impact national markets; what goes on nationally does not impact what happens here.”
Lafleur says there’s plentiful housing — from townhomes and condos to single-family homes, and more construction is on the horizon – available at a variety of price points for prospective newcomers, whether they are first-time buyers or downsizers. Moreover, Lafayette has many loan and bond programs as well as down payment or closing cost assistance to make the buying process easier.
“The Lafayette area is known for its hospitality and welcoming feeling,” she says. “Whether it’s a subdivision or condo complex, everyone’s going to want to get to know you, and you’re going to want to know them.
This article was sponsored by the Lafayette Convention & Visitors Commission, Lafayette Economic Development Authority and One Acadiana.
