Earlier this week, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported on a recent study: "Data centers’ impact on real estate is dramatically different depending on the local market, according to the 2026 Data Center Impact Report," the summary said.
"It depends" is often the outcome of serious work in social studies. And researchers often face a particular problem: the difference between causation and correlation. One may easily be able to show a statistical relationship between two factors (home prices and the presence of a data center, in this case), but it's much harder to prove that one caused the other.
So, the NAR showed that counties with at least 10 data centers each had median home values of $431,750, while those with none had a much lower median value: $174,500.
But researchers couldn't show that it was data centers that made that difference. Early data center developers may have chosen pleasant places to live so that they could attract high-skilled workers. So, property prices were often high before the centers were built.
Still, there may be limited grounds to believe that data centers made at least some small difference. "Home values in those high-concentration counties grew 95% over the past decade, compared with 64% in counties without data centers," says the NAR.
"Importantly, the report cautions that correlation is not causation. In counties with a high concentration of data centers, the higher median home price and stronger price growth are not necessarily driven by the presence of data centers. These counties were already high-income, highly educated technology hubs before the recent surge in new facilities."
The NAR polled affected members to see how Realtors were experiencing the impact of data centers in their local housing markets. The results were similarly mixed, with 25% seeing a positive effect and 22% a negative one.
One other interesting fact emerged from the NAR's report: Just 10 counties are home to 42% of all data centers. And Loudoun County, Virginia, alone accounted for 14% of them.
Data Centers' Limited Work Forces
When large commercial buildings such as factories, warehouses, and office blocks are constructed, they usually create several hundred — often many thousands of — jobs. But data centers are different.
When Business Insider investigated last year, it found, "even the largest data centers generally employ fewer than 150 permanent workers, and some have as few as 25." Humans have very little to do in a center besides keeping the whole thing going. So, employees tend to be electricians, plumbers, and engineers specializing in things like HVAC and data networking.
All this means that the extra workers attracted by data centers will likely create only limited demand in most local housing markets. And those jobs don't come to local governments free.
"Tax breaks given to developers can amount over time to more than $2 million for every permanent, full-time job at an operational data center," claimed the Business Insider report. According to economic watchdog Good Jobs First, that equates to around eight times higher than the $262,000 per job average noted across 18 large economic deals the organization analyzed from 2023.
In one extreme example from 2021, Google did a deal with Columbus, Ohio, to build a data center campus. The city offered a 100% property tax abatement with an estimated value of $54 million over 15 years. Google pledged 20 full-time jobs at the center, rising to about 40 by 2047.
"The costs to the public don’t end with tax subsidies," continued Business Insider. "Data centers drive up electricity costs for other ratepayers as utility operators invest billions of dollars in new grid infrastructure to support escalating power demands."
Data Centers' Plunging Popularity
Add in many data centers' thirst for water (for cooling), including during extreme weather events, and one can see why fewer people want one as a neighbor than used to be the case.
Heatmap has been monitoring changing public attitudes to data centers over the last year.
In August 2025, when pollsters posed the question, "Would you support or oppose a data center being built near where you live?" 43% strongly or somewhat supported the idea. An almost identical 42% opposed it either strongly or somewhat.
One year later, in August 2026, they asked exactly the same question. But the results were very different. A full 75% opposed centers, while 15% were supportive and 10% were unsure.
"The shift against the facilities is represented across age, gender, income, partisan ID, and the rural-urban divide," says Heatmap. "Data centers are 43 points underwater with Republicans, 65 points underwater with independents, and 75 points underwater with Democrats."
As importantly, these centers are now 63 points underwater with rural residents, even as many future facilities are planned for rural communities.
So, What Do Data Centers Mean for Home Prices?
The NAR's research suggests there's no straight-line relationship between home prices and proximity to a data center. Sometimes, a center appears to add value, and other times to destroy it.
The worrying thing is the sharp decline in the desirability of these centers. Some of that may be down to the increases in electricity and water costs they typically bring.
But if perceptions continue to deteriorate, their influence on home prices could turn negative. And that could be a big problem for markets.
Last month, J.P. Morgan said: "The U.S. data center market is experiencing unprecedented growth, fueled by the rapid adoption of AI, cloud computing and enterprise migration. In 2026 alone, J.P. Morgan estimates capex [capital expenditure] for the five largest U.S. hyperscalers — large-scale cloud and technology companies — will reach $697 billion, up by $173 billion since the beginning of the year."
Homeowners may increasingly dislike the idea of a data center near them. But with accumulated expenditures running into trillions of dollars on the line, their stock holdings, savings, 401(k)s, and other investment funds may disagree.
