Americans Aren't Moving Toward Data Centers, Data Centers Are Coming to Them, Realtor.com® Report Finds
Rhea-AI Summary
Realtor.com (NASDAQ:NWS) reports that the share of U.S. home sales within five miles of a large (50MW+) data center has risen from 0.67% in 2018 to about 1.5% in 2026, and could reach 2.3% by 2027 based on the current construction pipeline.
According to Realtor.com, growth in proximity is driven by a sevenfold increase in large facilities, from 49 to 347, not by homeowners moving toward existing sites. New centers are increasingly located farther from major cities, in lower-density ZIP codes and communities with household incomes now below the national median.
Analysis of 43 ZIP codes that added large data centers between 2019–2025 finds home values and listing prices tracked similar neighborhoods without facilities, while active listings remained higher near data centers. The report also highlights rising power and water demands as facilities’ average capacity has climbed from 24MW in 2018 to 60MW in 2026.
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News Explained
The report adds that new data-center exposure is moving into lower-income communities, while tax and future grid-cost effects remain unresolved.
The report's central new distinction is that the rise in home sales near large data centers reflects facilities opening in new communities, not increased turnover near existing sites: without post-2018 construction, the modeled 2026 share would be roughly
The report separates current exposure from the pipeline: 2026 facilities are in ZIP codes
Residential tax rates were lower near facilities than in comparison communities both before and after activation, but rose modestly against their own pre-opening baseline while comparison rates declined; the report says jurisdictional differences make the cause difficult to isolate.
A voluntary pledge announced in
Key Figures
Historical Context
| Date | Event | Sentiment | 24h Move | Catalyst |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 05 | Fiscal 2026 earnings | Positive | +2.2% | Revenue, net income, EBITDA and free cash flow all increased year over year. |
| Aug 05 | Housing policy report | Neutral | +1.3% | CDBG incentives appeared limited for most large cities in the analysis. |
| Aug 03 | July housing report | Neutral | +1.7% | Listing prices were flat monthly while annual declines and inventory trends varied. |
| Jul 30 | Los Angeles rent report | Positive | -2.6% | Los Angeles County rents declined year over year and reached their lowest level since 2021. |
| Jul 28 | New York rent report | Negative | +2.9% | New York City median asking rent reached a record in the tracked series. |
24h Move is the share-price change in the day after each event; other market factors may also have contributed.
Recent News Corp news events showed frequent divergence between the article's apparent operating or consumer impact and the subsequent 24-hour stock reaction.
Key Terms
megawatts technical
hyperscale technical
event study technical
ratepayer regulatory
AI-generated analysis. How Rhea-AI works. Not financial advice.
New facilities are pushing into lower-density, lower-income communities farther from major cities, but home values near newly activated data centers have so far moved in line with similar neighborhoods
The report, which draws on millions of home sales, listings and property tax records alongside facility-level data center insights from Aterio, also finds that the newest wave of large data centers is landing farther from cities, in less densely populated areas, and increasingly in communities with below-median household incomes — a reversal from the pattern that defined the early 2020s AI buildout.
"The data center buildout has moved fast and it is raising policy, community, and housing-market questions as it spreads and accelerates," said Danielle Hale, chief economist, Realtor.com®. "Our analysis so far offers some reassurance: in the communities we studied, a new data center opening nearby wasn't associated with meaningfully higher or lower home values than similar neighborhoods that didn't get one. But the facilities coming online next are bigger, more remote and landing in communities with less experience managing an industrial neighbor, so that track record may not hold as a guide to what comes next."
The Growth Is Geographic, Not Behavioral
To isolate what is driving more Americans to live near large data centers, the report models what would have happened had the data center industry stopped building in 2018. Under that scenario, the share of home sales near a large data center would sit at roughly
New Neighbors, Farther From the City
The physical footprint of the industry has expanded alongside its power footprint. In 2015, just 12 U.S. ZIP codes contained a large data center; by June 2026 that had grown to 108, and is on pace to reach 125 by year's end. The land those facilities are built on looks increasingly different, too. The median large data center opening in 2026 is surrounded by roughly
Household income patterns near new data centers have shifted as well. ZIP codes receiving new large facilities ran well above the national median income from 2020 through 2023, peaking
"The places absorbing this next wave of data centers look different from the places that absorbed the last one," said Glen Morgenstern, economist intern at Realtor.com®. "They tend to be lower-income, lower-density and farther from a city center, which usually also means fewer resources on hand — fewer attorneys, less organized civic engagement, and housing markets that react more slowly to new information. That doesn't tell us those communities will be worse off, but it does mean they may be less equipped to respond if a facility turns out to be a difficult neighbor."
Home Values Hold Steady, Listings Stay Plentiful
To test whether a large data center opening nearby affects home prices, the report compared 43 ZIP codes that gained a large data center between 2019 and 2025 against similar ZIP codes matched on pre-opening price levels and population density. In the two years following activation, home values in data center neighborhoods moved in line with their matched comparisons, with no gains or losses large enough to represent a meaningful difference. Listing prices showed a similar pattern: a small initial bump around the facility's opening that faded within two years.
Housing inventory told a different story. Three years after a large data center opened, those ZIP codes retained
Property tax rates near large data centers were lower than in comparison communities both before and after a facility's arrival, a gap the report attributes to where data centers tend to be sited rather than to the facilities themselves. Effective residential tax rates near data centers ticked up modestly relative to their own pre-opening baseline over five years, while the comparison group's rates drifted down relative to theirs — though the report cautions that county- and jurisdiction-level differences make the cause of that pattern difficult to isolate.
As Data Centers Grow, So Do Concerns Over Power and Water
The average large data center that opened in 2018 drew about 24 megawatts of power; by 2026 that figure had climbed to 60 megawatts, meaning more generators, more cooling infrastructure and more round-the-clock truck traffic per facility. Electricity and water use are also emerging as more visible pressure points, particularly in Sun Belt markets already navigating water scarcity, and rising utility bills tied to data center demand have already drawn public attention in states including
In March 2026, seven major AI companies signed a Ratepayer Protection Pledge committing to cover the cost of new power supply and grid infrastructure rather than pass it on to residential customers, a commitment that has since expanded to companies representing
Large Data Center Openings and ZIP Household Income by Activation Year
Activation Year | New Large Data Centers | Median Data Center ZIP Income |
2020 | 24 | +22.3 % |
2021 | 22 | +15.5 % |
2022 | 20 | +14.1 % |
2023 | 34 | +24.7 % |
2024 | 58 | +7.4 % |
2025 | 83 | +11.0 % |
2026 | 178 | -2.1 % |
2027* | 212 | -5.7 % |
*2027 reflects the construction pipeline. 2026 includes active and construction-stage sites with estimated 2026 activation dates. Recent incomes are based on 2024 American Community Survey estimates; each ZIP code is weighted equally regardless of population size. |
Methodology
Data center inventory comes from Aterio's facility-level database as of June 30, 2026, covering
About Realtor.com®
For over 30 years, Realtor.com® has connected buyers, sellers, and renters with trusted insights, professional guidance and powerful tools to help them find their perfect home. Recognized as the No. 1 real estate site REALTOR® agents recommend, Realtor.com® delivers consumer connections and a robust suite of marketing tools to support business growth. Realtor.com® is operated by News Corp [Nasdaq: NWS, NWSA] [ASX: NWS, NWSLV] subsidiary Move, Inc.
Media Contact: Mallory Micetich, press@realtor.com
View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/americans-arent-moving-toward-data-centers-data-centers-are-coming-to-them-realtorcom-report-finds-302847528.html
SOURCE Realtor.com