Data center boom is putting more homes near facilities

The growing share of U.S. home sales occurring near large data centers is being driven primarily by where the facilities are being built, rather than by changing homebuyer behavior, according to a new Realtor.com analysis.

The share of home sales within five miles of a data center with at least 50 megawatts of capacity has more than doubled since 2018 — rising from 0.67% to about 1.5% in 2026.

Meanwhile, the number of large data centers nationwide has increased more than sevenfold, from 49 to 347.

Based on facilities in the construction pipeline through 2027, Realtor.com projects that about 2.3% of U.S. home sales could occur within five miles of a large data center.

“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 at 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.”

HousingWire is also examining data centers’ impact on all aspects of the housing ecosystem — speaking with local Realtors and homebuilders about what they’re seeing on the ground.

Data centers move farther from cities

The industry’s geographic footprint is changing.

In 2015, just 12 U.S. ZIP codes contained a large data center. By June 2026, that number had grown to 108 and is projected to reach 125 by year-end, the Realtor.com report said.

New facilities are increasingly being built in lower-density areas farther from major cities. The median large data center opening in 2026 is surrounded by roughly 70% fewer residential housing units per square mile than facilities opened in 2017.

Facilities in the 2027 pipeline are expected to be about 34 miles from the nearest major city center, compared with 27 miles for 2026 openings.

Host communities are also becoming less affluent. Facilities activated in 2026 were located in ZIP codes with incomes 2.1% below the national median — while communities in the 2027 pipeline are expected to have incomes 5.7% below the national median.

Home values largely unchanged

Realtor.com compared 43 ZIP codes that gained a large data center between 2019 and 2025 with similar communities matched for pre-opening home prices and population density.

In the two years after activation, home values in data center ZIP codes generally tracked their matched communities — with no statistically meaningful gains or losses. Listing prices showed a modest initial increase around openings before fading within two years.

Housing inventory showed a larger difference.

Three years after a data center opened, communities retained 66% of their pre-opening active listings, compared with 43% in matched ZIP codes without a data center.

Infrastructure concerns grow

Large data centers are also becoming substantially more power-intensive.

The average facility opening in 2018 required about 24 megawatts of power — compared with approximately 60 megawatts in 2026. The growing demand for electricity and water is raising concerns, particularly in Sun Belt markets already facing resource constraints, Realtor.com added.

While data centers studied so far have not had a meaningful impact on nearby home values, Realtor.com cautions that newer facilities are larger, more remote and increasingly located in lower-income communities.

Those differences could make the housing-market and infrastructure effects of the next phase of the data center boom harder to predict.

This article was written by Jonathan Delozier and generated with the assistance of HousingWire Automation. It was reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication.