The relationship between where people work and where they live has been recalibrated. The GAO’s 2026 telework report synthesizes evidence from empirical studies and metropolitan planning organizations to map the real estate consequences — and they run in opposite directions depending on where you look. In central business districts, the picture is one of contraction. Office vacancy rates climbed as hybrid schedules hollowed out weekday occupancy. A prior GAO report documented that between August 2022 and January 2024, prices fell across all commercial property types — office, multi-family, retail, lodging — with the single exception of industrial properties.

A March 2026 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office puts hard numbers on what transit agencies and metropolitan planners have been navigating since 2020: telework rates tripled during the pandemic and have not come back down to earth. According to American Community Survey data analyzed by GAO, the share of workers who primarily worked from home stood at 5.7 percent in 2019. By 2021 it had reached 17.9 percent. By 2024 it had declined to 13.

Total vehicle miles traveled in the United States surpassed pre-pandemic levels for the first time in 2024. Federal Highway Administration data show 3.28 trillion miles driven, clearing the 3.26 trillion recorded in 2019. On its face, the road network is as busy as it ever was. What that headline number conceals is a structural shift in when, where, and why people drive. The GAO’s 2026 review of telework’s transportation effects separates the aggregate from the composition.