Data Centers Are Moving In Next to American Homes—Here’s How Neighborhoods Are Changing

Data centers are increasingly popping up next to American homes, and they're changing neighborhoods in the process.The number of large data centers over 50 megawatts has increased sevenfold from 2018, and now U.S. communities host over 350 of them. Not surprisingly, the share of home sales near them has doubled, now accounting for 1.5% of all sales, new Realtor.com® research shows.Data centers have emerged as the hot-button issue of 2026. Many cities and states have paused data center developments or incentives amid growing public controversy over their heavy power consumption, noise, and environmental pollution. And more lawsuits are pitting the hesitant neighbors against each other.By the end of this year, almost 2% of home sales will be near a big data center. Not because there is more sales activity around data centers, but because there are more data centers in more U.S. communities than ever.And while data centers are pushing into increasingly rural areas and lower-income regions, their impact on home values remains unclear. In a statement to Realtor.com, the Data Center Coalition, which represents many major developers and users in the industry, said companies operate how th...