A Realtor.com study found no clear gap in home price growth near new data centers, but power bills, water and noise remain open questions for neighbors.
Living near a data center may not hurt your home's value. A Realtor.com study from August 2026 looked at 43 ZIP codes where large data centers opened between 2019 and 2025. It found no statistically significant difference in price growth during the first two years, compared with similar neighborhoods without one.
Researchers compared the ZIP codes with data centers to similar areas that did not get one. Homes near newly opened facilities generally gained value at about the same rate as comparable homes elsewhere.
There are limits. The study used ZIP-code averages, not individual homes. It left out Texas and 11 other states where sale prices are not public. It also tracked prices for only two years after a facility opened.
A Pew Research Center analysis from April 2026 found that 67% of planned U.S. data centers are in rural areas, compared with 13% of those already running. Also, 39% of planned sites are in counties with no data center today.
Realtor.com found the median large data center opening in 2026 sat in an area with 32 homes per square mile, down from 116 in 2017. Because sites are moving to thinly populated places, past results may not predict what happens next.
Data centers need huge amounts of electricity. Utilities may have to build more power plants, power lines and substations. The open question is who pays. A June 2026 report from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimates data centers could use 9.5% to 15.3% of U.S. electricity by 2030, with a central estimate of 11.8%.
Not every data center is for AI. These buildings also run cloud storage, websites and streaming. Virginia leads with 674 facilities that are operating, under construction, planned or held as future sites. Texas has 537, California 296 and Georgia 276.
Answers may appear in zoning applications, planning board meetings, utility filings or environmental permit reviews. Also check whether a project is only proposed or has all its approvals. Much of the future footprint is still in the planning stage.
Home values near data centers have held up so far, so focus your questions on who pays for power upgrades, where the water comes from and noise limits.
Voters in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, banned large data centers after a $900 million plan. Here is how a town of 6,600 did it, and what other places can learn.
Read more: Small Ohio town votes to ban a $900 million AI data centerA Kuala Lumpur firm now sells a SGD 1,500 check of what ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google say about a named executive, after its founder's own test found mix-ups.
Read more: New Audit Checks What AI Chatbots Say About Business LeadersIn a hand-counted 4,500-step walk, the $180 Fitbit Edge was off by 8 steps and the $800 Apple Watch Ultra 4 by 51. Both did the job well.
Read more: A $180 Fitbit counted steps more closely than an $800 Apple Watch
