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Data: National Council on Teacher Quality; Note: Salary estimated for teachers with a bachelor's degree and 15 years of experience in each area's largest school district. Homeowner cost estimate includes mortgage, fees and utilities; Map: Kavya Beheraj/Axios

In an effort to combat a chronic teacher shortage, a handful of school districts across the country are focusing on housing, Axios' Emma Hurt reports.

Los Gatos, California, built an affordable housing teacher complex in partnership with a nonprofit earlier this year.

Austin Independent School District is looking for development partners to build and manage two teacher housing complexes on unused district land within the year.

Why it matters: Many teachers can't afford to live where they work, which can have repercussions for the quality of students' education, Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, told Axios.

Zoom in: Since 2017, the average American home price has risen 40%, and the one-bedroom rent in the largest metro areas has increased 22%, per nonprofit  National Council on Teacher Quality

But starting teacher salaries have only risen 15%.

By the numbers: The annual cost of owning a home in Richmond is 33.6% of an experienced teacher's salary, per data from the NCTQ.

And it would take them 10-15 years to save for a 20% down payment based on last year's median home sale price.

Reality check: Although each district's situation is different, the root of the housing problem lies in chronic under-compensation of teachers, said Pringle with the NEA.

Owning a home costs a third of an experienced Richmond teacher's salary

Many teachers can't afford to live where they work, which can have repercussions for the quality of students' education.

In an effort to combat a <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="chronic teacher shortage" data-vars-click-url="https://link.axios.com/click/32414522.111/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYXhpb3MuY29tLzIwMjEvMTEvMTUvdGVhY2hlci1sYWJvci1zaG9ydGFnZS1vdXRsYXN0LXBhbmRlbWljP3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9bmV3c2xldHRlciZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1zZW5kdG9fbG9jYWxuZXdzbGV0dGVydGVzdCZzdHJlYW09dG9w/621cf7632d0d7c1ea2551892B1dd26b13" data-vars-content-id="1e480f3b-c21f-4aa5-bec2-7d97ea03c38b" data-vars-headline="Owning a home costs a third of an experienced Richmond teacher&#x27;s salary" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://link.axios.com/click/32414522.111/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYXhpb3MuY29tLzIwMjEvMTEvMTUvdGVhY2hlci1sYWJvci1zaG9ydGFnZS1vdXRsYXN0LXBhbmRlbWljP3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9bmV3c2xldHRlciZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1zZW5kdG9fbG9jYWxuZXdzbGV0dGVydGVzdCZzdHJlYW09dG9w/621cf7632d0d7c1ea2551892B1dd26b13" target="_self">chronic teacher shortage</a>, a handful of school districts across the country are focusing on housing, <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="Axios&#x27; Emma Hurt reports" data-vars-click-url="https://link.axios.com/click/32414522.111/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYXhpb3MuY29tLzIwMjMvMDgvMTMvdGVhY2hlci1ob3VzaW5nLWFmZm9yZGFiaWxpdHk_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPXNlbmR0b19sb2NhbG5ld3NsZXR0ZXJ0ZXN0JnN0cmVhbT10b3A/621cf7632d0d7c1ea2551892Bf5c00c50" data-vars-content-id="1e480f3b-c21f-4aa5-bec2-7d97ea03c38b" data-vars-headline="Owning a home costs a third of an experienced Richmond teacher&#x27;s salary" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://link.axios.com/click/32414522.111/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYXhpb3MuY29tLzIwMjMvMDgvMTMvdGVhY2hlci1ob3VzaW5nLWFmZm9yZGFiaWxpdHk_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPXNlbmR0b19sb2NhbG5ld3NsZXR0ZXJ0ZXN0JnN0cmVhbT10b3A/621cf7632d0d7c1ea2551892Bf5c00c50" target="_self">Axios&#x27; Emma Hurt reports</a>.<ul><li>Los Gatos, California, built an affordable housing teacher <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="complex" data-vars-click-url="https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/03/01/exactly-what-i-needed-los-gatos-teachers-move-into-affordable-units/" data-vars-content-id="1e480f3b-c21f-4aa5-bec2-7d97ea03c38b" data-vars-headline="Owning a home costs a third of an experienced Richmond teacher&#x27;s salary" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/03/01/exactly-what-i-needed-los-gatos-teachers-move-into-affordable-units/" target="_blank">complex</a> in partnership with a nonprofit earlier this year.</li><li>Austin Independent School District is looking for development partners to build and manage two teacher housing complexes on unused district land within the year.</li></ul>

Education

Data: U.S. Census; Map: Kavya Beheraj/Axios

Richmonders fared better than the state as a whole when it came to pandemic-era income gains.

Driving the news: The median household income across the Richmond metro area rose 3% between 2019 and 2022, per new Census Bureau data.

Richmond-area median income was $81,388 in 2022, compared with $78,981 in 2019, adjusted for inflation.

The median income in Virginia, meanwhile, dropped 2.84%, from $88,382 to $85,873.

The new data comes by way of the U.S. Census Bureau's 2022 American Community Survey (ACS) one-year estimates, released Thursday.

Why it matters:  The ACS is one of the best resources available for a regularly published quantified look at myriad facets of American life, down to a remarkably local level.

Data: U.S. Census; Chart: Kavya Beheraj/Axios

By the numbers: The share of Richmond area residents making between $50,000 and $75,000 annually decreased from 18% to 16% between 2019 and 2022, while the share making over $100,000 increased from 34% to 41%.

The big picture: Nationally, median household income fell 1.6% between 2019 and 2022, adjusted for inflation.

That trend "explains why Americans have felt so meh about the strong economy over the past couple years," Axios Markets' Emily Peck writes based on similar data released earlier this week.

The intrigue: The COVID-19 pandemic "changed the geography of where money is made in the United States," Axios Macro's Neil Irwin reports, as many higher-income Americans decamped from cities like New York and San Francisco to "rural and exurban places and popular vacation destinations."

changed the geography of where money is made in the United States

Richmond households saw an income boost during the pandemic

The median income in Virginia, meanwhile, dropped.

Richmonders fared better than the state as a whole when it came to pandemic-era income gains.Driving the news: The median household income across the Richmond metro area rose 3% between 2019 and 2022, per new Census Bureau data.

News

If you traveled over the holidays and experienced flight delays, you were not alone.

State of play: 74.2% of domestic flights departed Richmond airport on time in December 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, Alex Fitzpatrick and Kavya Beheraj report.

That's down from 82.6% in November 2022, per recently released data from the department's Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).

The big picture: Nationally, just 69% of December's flights departed on time.

That figure is generally between 75%-80% in a typical month, albeit with predictable dips in the busy — and often meteorologically challenging — summer and winter travel seasons.

Driving the news: The real story in December was, of course, Southwest Airlines' epic meltdown.

61.4% of Southwest flights departed RIC on time in December.

Just 57.3% of Southwest's December flights departed on time nationally, compared to 77.2% for Delta Air Lines, 72.5% for American Airlines and 70.7% for United Airlines.

Southwest's struggles dragged down the average for all carriers reporting data to BTS.

Yes, but: All indications so far suggest Southwest has recovered nicely since December, though BTS' data reports lag by about three months.

The airline has promised to update key systems that exacerbated December's meltdown, as well as better communicate with passengers whose flights are delayed or canceled in the future.

What they're saying: "We spend a lot of money on technology and recently put in a new state-of-the-art maintenance system, a new reservation system and a new human capital workday system," Southwest CEO Bob Jordan told Axios' Eleanor Hawkins.

The bottom line: December was truly just as bad as it seemed, the data shows.

RIC's December air travel meltdown

74.2% of domestic flights departed Richmond airport on time in December.

If you traveled over the holidays and experienced flight delays, you were not alone.State of play: 74.2% of domestic flights departed Richmond airport on time in December 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, Alex Fitzpatrick and Kavya Beheraj report.

Data: U.S. Census Bureau; Chart: Alice Feng/Axios

Richmonders' commutes are generally shorter than before the pandemic, according to a new Axios analysis of census data.

Why it matters: Quicker commutes are tied to better mental health, greater job satisfaction and several other personal benefits, Alex Fitzpatrick and Alice Feng report.

Many people also commute via public transit. And the less time Americans spend in cars, the better for the environment.

By the numbers: The share of Richmond-area workers commuting between 30 and 44 minutes saw the steepest drop, with 22.1% of locals making those commutes last year, compared to 23.9% in 2019.

The share of workers commuting between 15 and 29 minutes, 45 and 49 minutes and an hour or more fell too.

Yes, but: The share of locals with the shortest commute time — less than 15 minutes — went up between 2019 and 2022, from 19.7% pre-pandemic to 22.2% last year.

Worth noting: The share of Richmonders working remotely fell last year to 18.7% from its 2021 peak of 23%, according to census data (2020 numbers were not tracked).

The big picture: Nationally, commutes under 30 minutes became more commonplace between 2019 and 2022, while those 30 minutes and longer became rarer.

36.8% of U.S. workers had a commute of 15-29 minutes in 2022, up from 35.6% in 2019.

Another 26% had a commute of less than 15 minutes, up from 24.8%.

Of note: These findings don't include employees who work from home, and thus have a commute time of zero — or maybe a minute or two, if you stop to pour a cup of coffee on your way to your home office setup.

Driving the news: There are a handful of potential factors at play here.

The "Great Reshuffling" led many Americans to move and/or find new jobs, and some of those who enjoyed the benefits of pandemic-era remote work prioritized shorter commutes in favor of more personal or family time.

Meanwhile, some degree of remote and hybrid work is persisting post-pandemic, leading to fewer cars on the road and so less traffic and faster commutes.

The bottom line: This data may not jive with your personal experience, as construction and other factors can mess with particular routes — but in the broad sense, more Americans are enjoying faster trips to work.

Commute times dropped for Richmond workers

The share of Richmond-area workers commuting between 30 and 44 minutes saw the steepest drop.

Richmonders&#x27; commutes are generally <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="shorter" data-vars-click-url="https://link.axios.com/click/33108449.14/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYXhpb3MuY29tLzIwMjMvMTAvMTkvY29tbXV0ZS1kaXN0YW5jZS10aW1lLXVzLXN0YXRlLXBhbmRlbWljLXN0YXRpc3RpY3M_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPXNlbmR0b19sb2NhbG5ld3NsZXR0ZXJ0ZXN0JnN0cmVhbT10b3A/624a478d8de5d288030b4174B29f08b2f" data-vars-content-id="af9eec7d-1d2b-4f60-883c-2a2c514d7cde" data-vars-headline="Commute times dropped for Richmond workers" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://link.axios.com/click/33108449.14/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYXhpb3MuY29tLzIwMjMvMTAvMTkvY29tbXV0ZS1kaXN0YW5jZS10aW1lLXVzLXN0YXRlLXBhbmRlbWljLXN0YXRpc3RpY3M_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPXNlbmR0b19sb2NhbG5ld3NsZXR0ZXJ0ZXN0JnN0cmVhbT10b3A/624a478d8de5d288030b4174B29f08b2f" target="_self">shorter</a> than before the pandemic, according to a new Axios analysis of census data.Why it matters: Quicker commutes are <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="tied" data-vars-click-url="https://link.axios.com/click/33108449.14/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYXhpb3MuY29tL2JyaWRnZT91cmw9aHR0cHM6Ly9oYnIub3JnLzIwMjEvMDUvdGhhdC1kcmVhZGVkLWNvbW11dGUtaXMtYWN0dWFsbHktZ29vZC1mb3IteW91ci1oZWFsdGgmcz0xMjQ0OTgmbj1lMDkxNDBkMSZ0PWZjNDMxYzkzYmI5ODc4YWE2NDYwZDI3NzQ4ZTVhMGM1Y2JhNWE5MTImdXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPXNlbmR0b19sb2NhbG5ld3NsZXR0ZXJ0ZXN0JnN0cmVhbT10b3A/624a478d8de5d288030b4174B2fdc74dc" data-vars-content-id="af9eec7d-1d2b-4f60-883c-2a2c514d7cde" data-vars-headline="Commute times dropped for Richmond workers" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://link.axios.com/click/33108449.14/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYXhpb3MuY29tL2JyaWRnZT91cmw9aHR0cHM6Ly9oYnIub3JnLzIwMjEvMDUvdGhhdC1kcmVhZGVkLWNvbW11dGUtaXMtYWN0dWFsbHktZ29vZC1mb3IteW91ci1oZWFsdGgmcz0xMjQ0OTgmbj1lMDkxNDBkMSZ0PWZjNDMxYzkzYmI5ODc4YWE2NDYwZDI3NzQ4ZTVhMGM1Y2JhNWE5MTImdXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPXNlbmR0b19sb2NhbG5ld3NsZXR0ZXJ0ZXN0JnN0cmVhbT10b3A/624a478d8de5d288030b4174B2fdc74dc" target="_self">tied</a> to better mental health, greater job satisfaction and several other personal benefits, <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="Alex Fitzpatrick and Alice Feng report" data-vars-click-url="https://link.axios.com/click/33108449.14/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYXhpb3MuY29tLzIwMjMvMTAvMTkvY29tbXV0ZS1kaXN0YW5jZS10aW1lLXVzLXN0YXRlLXBhbmRlbWljLXN0YXRpc3RpY3M_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPXNlbmR0b19sb2NhbG5ld3NsZXR0ZXJ0ZXN0JnN0cmVhbT10b3A/624a478d8de5d288030b4174C29f08b2f" data-vars-content-id="af9eec7d-1d2b-4f60-883c-2a2c514d7cde" data-vars-headline="Commute times dropped for Richmond workers" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://link.axios.com/click/33108449.14/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYXhpb3MuY29tLzIwMjMvMTAvMTkvY29tbXV0ZS1kaXN0YW5jZS10aW1lLXVzLXN0YXRlLXBhbmRlbWljLXN0YXRpc3RpY3M_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPXNlbmR0b19sb2NhbG5ld3NsZXR0ZXJ0ZXN0JnN0cmVhbT10b3A/624a478d8de5d288030b4174C29f08b2f" target="_self">Alex Fitzpatrick and Alice Feng report</a>.

Richmonders are still working from home in droves, but in smaller numbers than at the pandemic peak.

Driving the news: In metro Richmond, 18.7% of workers were working from home as of 2022, down from 23% in 2021, per new Census Bureau figures released last month.

Yes, but: That's up significantly from the 5.8% of locals who were working from home in 2019 before the pandemic.

Why it matters: The spike in remote workers has changed the way Richmonders live, from commuting habits to downtown office life to who lives in Richmond.

The big picture: Workers in America's biggest, most competitive cities aren't giving up the flexibility and savings — in both time and gas money — of working from home, Axios' Sam Baker and Simran Parwani report.

Zoom out: Overall, 15% of the U.S. worked from home last year — but the numbers are much higher on both the East and West coasts, and in other large metro areas.

Boulder, Colorado, had the highest share of remote workers of any metro area last year, at 32%. Denver wasn't far behind.

Just over 25% of the Washington, D.C., metro area workforce is remote — the 6th highest rate of any city, and higher than any state.

The other side: Mississippi has the lowest share of remote workers in the U.S. at just 5.5%, and the Southeast generally is well below the national average.

Even so, every state has more remote workers now than before the pandemic began.

And even after two years, the trend line is barely moving. Nationwide, the share of people working from home declined by less than 3 percentage points from 2021 to 2022, according to the Census figures.

What we're watching: The work-from-home revolution is most entrenched in big cities with large concentrations of office buildings and, pre-pandemic, their downtown downtown economies survived because their office buildings were full.

Any number of large employers, from big banks in New York all the way up to the federal government, have tried to get their employees back to the office. For the most part, they haven't been very successful.

The solution in these cities is more likely to come from ambitious redevelopment projects — converting office towers into residential buildings and central business districts into mixed-use neighborhoods.

That work is complex, difficult and extremely expensive, but it's already underway in several cities.

Fewer people are working remotely in Richmond

It's still significantly more than before the pandemic.

Richmonders are still working from home in droves, but in smaller numbers than at the pandemic peak.Driving the news: In metro Richmond, 18.7% of workers were working from home as of 2022, down from 23% in 2021, per new Census Bureau figures released last month.