These 10 regions could be most impacted by federal return-to-office mandates

Return-to-office mandates for the federal workforce mean hundreds of thousands of people are headed back to the office, with impacts that will ripple across the country.

Washington, DC, may be the traditional hub for government employees, but other regions have more federal leases, and pay more for them, too. 

Houston, for example, has one of the highest concentrations of federal office space, and local leaders are betting federal RTO mandates will boost vibrancy and business for local storefronts, maybe even helping it climb back up to its pre-pandemic levels.

“Employees are the lifeblood of sales for many of our restaurants and cafes, and importantly, workers contribute to the vibrancy of our public realm,” Downtown Houston CEO Kristopher Larson told Technical.ly. 

The Texas city’s total count of federal office leases is 59, with an annual price tag of $43.7 million. In total, the federal government, also the largest employer in the country, spends nearly $5.8 billion on its annual leases across more than 7,500 offices, according to data from the General Services Administration. 

DC, home to the core components and major agencies in charge of running the federal government, has many of these offices — 166 leases, per GSA data. And nearby Arlington, Virginia, lands in the top three, too.

Just tied with Arlington, though? San Diego, California. There’s not a clear reason for that, though the federal government employed nearly 47,000 residents as of December 2024. The city’s downtown organization didn’t respond to a request for comment. 

The mandate will have major impacts on people uprooting their lifestyles to meet the order, according to Mika Cross, the CEO of professional training org Strategy@Work, who spent more than a decade in federal government.

“The impact to the average worker is not just productivity and a headache to have to relocate,” Cross told Technical.ly, “It’s logistically, how can we make this work.

“Our government was already investing in rural community growth and rural innovation growth in those opportunity zones,” Cross said. “Why would we take away the ability for the federal government to also be able to live and work in those communities?”

This is all rapidly changing, though. With President Donald Trump’s current imperative to slash the federal workforce, cities may miss out on the economic impacts of RTO they’re anticipating, and workers may soon find themselves out of a job instead of back in the office. 

Top 5 most expensive federal office leases

Altogether, federal office leases in fiscal year 2024 cost about 0.086% of the total US budget of about $6.75 trillion — but spending varies widely across the country.

The top five most expensive offices are: 

• $62 million Triangle Services Division in Alexandria, Virginia
• $61.5 million Kansas City South Office in Kansas City, Missouri
• $34.8 million Kansas City North Office in Kansas City, Missouri
• $34.7 million Delaware Valley Field Office in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• And the $31.8 million DC Services Division in Washington, DC. 

States with the highest and lowest office concentration

California, Texas and Florida have the highest concentration of federal offices, according to leasing data from the, with San Diego and Arlington, Virginia, as the top cities for those buildings outside of DC proper.

The places with the fewest federal offices are the US territories. The American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam and the Virgin Islands all have fewer than 15 locations. 

By state, here’s how the list of the five lowest it shakes out compared to the number of employees, according to US Census data: 

• Rhode Island with 28 offices serving 21,000 federal employees
• New Hampshire with 35 offices, serving 20,000 employees
• Delaware with 41 offices, serving 18,000 employees
• North Dakota with 41 offices, serving 23,000 employees
• Wyoming with 45 offices, serving 15,000 employees.

Vermont has the lowest concentration of federal employees at 8,000 across 46 offices.

Compared to the five states that have the most, however, proximity to major cities that could be playing a factor. Still, the concentration of leases doesn’t always match up the size of the federal workforce by ranking.