How Much Does It Cost to Rent an Office in Your City? (Infographic) A look at how much space you can get for $5,000 a month in these major U.S. cities.
By Nina Zipkin
When you're starting a business, the general rule of thumb is to keep your overhead expenses low. But when it's time to trade in your basement or the local coffee shop for an actual office of your own, what can you expect to pay?
An infographic compiled by New York-based tech-focused commercial real estate platform TheSquareFoot offers a snapshot of how much space you get for your dollar (in this case, a baseline of $5,000 per month) in metropolitan centers all over the U.S., from Atlanta to Seattle. Rental costs are often determined by a number of factors, including vacancy and unemployment rates, cost of living and demand for space.
Related: The Best and Worst U.S. Cities to Launch a Business
According to SquareFoot, San Francisco has the highest cost of living and New York has the most available office space and largest labor force. On the other end of the spectrum, Miami has the least amount of office space (about 12 square feet per person to Boston's roughly 61 square feet per person) and Seattle's is the smallest labor force.
Atlanta and Dallas were both found to have vacancy rates of over 19 percent, giving business owners more of an upper hand when it comes to renting a space. And in the first quarter of 2015, rent prices went down in Chicago, Houston, and Los Angeles, but increased in the other cities.
Related: 10 Things to Consider When Choosing a Location for Your Business
When finding the right space, you have to take into account things like your prospective neighbors and the infrastructure of the building. And if you're doubling as a storefront, you have to think about how accessible the location is to your customers.
For more information about how far your money goes for square footage, check out the infographic below.
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