A buyer touring a home a few miles from a proposed data center may ask the question before an agent has a clean answer: Will this help the home’s value, hurt it, or make no difference at all?
A new National Association of Realtors report suggests there is no reliable national answer. Released Sept. 9, the 2026 Data Center Impact Report found that 25% of surveyed agents perceived a positive effect on nearby home values, while 22% saw a negative one. County-level data showed stronger home values in areas with heavy data center concentrations, but many of those markets were already affluent technology hubs before the latest construction boom.
The question is likely to come up more often as development spreads. The share of U.S. home sales within five miles of a large data center rose from 0.67% in 2018 to about 1.5% in the first half of 2026, according to an August housing-market analysis. Based on the current construction pipeline, that share is projected to approach 2.3% by the end of 2027.
What the latest housing research shows
The survey results were just as mixed on residential demand. Twenty-six percent of agents reported a decrease near data centers, 27% saw no change, and 19% reported an increase. Client concerns were more concentrated around infrastructure, with 61% of respondents citing energy costs and 56% citing water use.
Separate research comparing 43 ZIP codes that received large data centers from 2019 through 2025 found no statistically meaningful difference in sale or listing-price trends during the first two years after activation compared with similar areas.
Those findings add to earlier research showing conflicting home-value effects, including studies that found positive county-level trends alongside localized declines. That still does not tell an agent what happens to the house two miles from a proposed site.
What agents should verify before advising clients
Start with the project itself. Is it proposed, approved, under construction, or already operating? A headline about thousands of construction jobs can sound like a housing-demand story, but that does not necessarily translate into the same level of permanent employment once the facility opens.
Then look at what buyers will actually experience. Noise, lighting, traffic, visual impact, utility infrastructure, and proximity all matter more at the property level than a national percentage ever will. Pull planning records and the site plan to confirm setbacks, entrances, generator locations, cooling systems, expansion phases, and conditions of approval. Utility concerns are better checked against local regulatory filings than assumed from broader trends.
Those local rules can also move while a project is working its way through approvals. Aurora, Colorado, has adopted a temporary 350-foot residential setback while officials develop permanent standards for noise, setbacks, and equipment screening.
How to evaluate a home’s value near a data center
If a facility is already operating, matched local sales are the better place to look. Compare homes by property type, age, condition, school assignment, sale date, and distance from the site. A simple radius search can create a false pattern if school boundaries, lot sizes, or newer subdivisions are really driving the price difference.
Proposed or unfinished projects may not yet have enough local sales evidence to support a value adjustment. A CMA or BPO can inform a listing conversation where permitted, but formal valuation questions involving lending, litigation, or tax disputes should go to a licensed appraiser.
Agents do not need a canned answer for whether data centers raise or lower home values. They need to know what is being built, how close it is, what local approvals require, and what nearby sales actually show. That is a stronger answer to a client than borrowing a percentage from a study of another market.