Any new coffee houses open lately in your neighborhood? It could mean a proliferation of home offices.

Today, about 20 percent of Americans work from home. That number is expected to double not all that far into the distant future. What some experts have observed is the rising number of home offices has had a profound effect on main street. That is, shop keepers are now beginning to cater to a clientele of white collar workers who desire things like gourmet coffee and photocopies at all hours of the day and night.

Here’s how Michael Pollan, author of A Place of My Own, sees it: The proliferation of people working at home has exploded. Today you can be a Wall Street Trader and yet live in an unspoiled forest.

Welcome to the future.