Homeowners are worried about what data centers will do to their home values

Research from outside the tech industry suggests that the link between data centers and home values is weak. But homeowners beg to differ.

Would you buy a home near a data center?

In recent months, Americans have gotten more vocal about their concerns over data centers and the effects they could have on home values.

Some are worried that data centers are making it harder to sell their homes. Others are worried about buying a home close to a data center because of potential noise and light pollution.

Most Americans dislike data centers: 75% of people say they would oppose a data center being built near where they live, according to one poll by Heatmap Pro.

But recent industry research says homeowners should not be worried, because data centers in residential areas haven't hurt home values.

In one report, Realtor.com found that in the 43 Zip codes where large data centers went up between 2019 and 2025, home prices went up at a "nearly identical rate" as in areas without them. However, those areas may be less sensitive to this kind of development than a residential subdivision.

Research from outside the tech industry also finds that the link between data centers and home values is weak.

Data-center development "appears to have little measurable impact" on local housing prices, according to a February research paper by Alex Priest, an assistant professor of finance at the University of Rochester.

That's the academic research. But anecdotal evidence suggests a more complicated situation.

A challenging home sale

In Charlotte, N.C., Lori (who did not want to give her last name) listed her custom-built, 3,100-square-foot, four-bedroom ranch home for sale in March.

The last thing she expected was for it to languish on the market for four months and counting, specifically because of the data center being built behind it.

The 64-year-old retired nurse put the house up for sale three years after her husband died and bought a new home 200 miles away to be near her sisters.

MarketWatch verified the listing information on Zillow and other property-listing websites.

Lori didn't think she'd have such a hard time selling. When she was living in the Charlotte home, family and friends told her she'd get a great price for it.

After consulting with her real-estate agent, comparing the home with similar listings and receiving input from her financial adviser, Lori listed the property for $925,000.

But the nearby data center completely derailed her plans. The data-center campus is about 3 million square feet, potentially making it North Carolina's largest.

It's also right behind the woods that frame Lori's house. She has reduced her asking price multiple times, as potential buyers flagged the upcoming data center as an unappealing prospect.

After 60 days, the owner of the data center offered Lori $899,000, which she accepted. They even put down $9,000 in earnest money.

But after 60 days of being under contract, the buyer pulled the plug and walked away, Lori said. Four months later, she said she just wants to get out of this situation.

She still owes $200,000 on the mortgage of that home, so she's paying two mortgages each month: $1,600 for the home she's selling and $1,600 for the one she now lives in. That's on top of things like utility bills and lawn maintenance.

At one point she had to come up with $500 to pay an electric bill for the home in Charlotte. The thermostat had been set to 71 degrees Fahrenheit and a worker forgot to turn off the air-conditioning.

People call and schedule a viewing for the house, she said, but then they find out about the data center being built nearby and cancel.

The house is now listed for $799,000 - roughly $126,000 less than the original asking price. "That's the absolute most I could ever get for it at this point," she said.

"How low do I have to go to sell it? And when do you know it's the right time to say, 'Okay, I'll take whatever you offer,' and run? You don't ever know when that's the time," she told me.

If she sells for a much lower price than her original list price, that will in turn affect how real-estate appraisers and buyers determine the value of other nearby properties.

Real-estate agents are wary

In a separate case, one person told Matt Ferris, a Redfin agent based in Virginia, that she wanted to "make sure there wasn't a data center planned" near a place she was buying.

Another client told him that a year after they moved into a community where there are several data centers, they regretted it. They said they wished they had chosen a different area.

I called Ferris, who recalled a recent conversation with a seller who said he was happy he was relocating for a new job and selling his house in an area where a data center is rumored to be coming.

"We're happy we're getting out now, because we wouldn't want to live there," Ferris said the seller told him. But at the same time, he was worried about how the data center could affect the value of the home he is selling.

Buyers are also concerned. "Every person I've had a conversation with about data centers has been conscious about it," Ferris said.

Woody Fincham, a real-estate appraiser in Virginia, agrees that a data center going up right next door to a residential property or a subdivision could have an effect on property values.

But he said that it's not clear whether this is a hard-and-fast rule. "This is a relatively new thing, so there's not a lot of market data yet," Fincham said.

If the data centers have bright lights and emit a lot of noise because of their cooling fans, "it changes the relatively quiet residential environment into something that's constantly loud," he said.

Some people are "ready to move" because of an incoming data center, Fincham said, but others are afraid, because once a data center is announced, that alone can affect home values.

That's what is happening in North Carolina. Lori is still waiting for an offer on her house. Often times, data centers need to sit close to power substations and fiber lines, which often means edging up against suburbs and exurbs where people already live.

She told MarketWatch that she feels disheartened, sad and frustrated by the way things have played out. "It's a shame, if it's going to ruin an entire neighborhood," she said.

"Why can't they build them in the middle of nowhere?" she said. "Why do they have to build them right against people's homes that they live in?"

(Realtor.com is operated by News Corp subsidiary Move Inc.; MarketWatch publisher Dow Jones is also a subsidiary of News Corp.)

Julian Torres contributed to this story.

-Aarthi Swaminathan