As data center construction grows across the U.S.—and into local housing markets—pros from across industries have raised the question of what this growth means for housing, employment, and more.

The 2026 Data Center Impact Report from the National Association of Realtors shows that when it comes to the housing market, data centers aren’t making much of an impact on a nationwide scale. Instead, impacts tend to be highly localized.

Data centers are highly concentrated among a few metros

Data centers are being built in concentrated areas, with 92% of U.S. counties having no mapped data centers. Additionally, just 1% of counties have 10 or more data centers.

Meanwhile, Northern Virginia’s Loudoun and Prince William counties have some of the greatest concentrations of data centers in the U.S., with 19% of all data centers concentrated there. The Silicon Valley also holds approximately 5% of all data centers, with another 5% concentrated in central Ohio’s Franklin and Licking counties.

How are areas with high concentrations of data centers impacted?

Counties with more data centers tend to have higher home values, higher incomes, and stronger job growth. However, these trends don’t necessarily correlate with data centers as many of them have already been high-income and highly-educated communities prior to data center growth.

Counties with 10 or more data centers had a median home value of $431,750, compared with $174,500 in counties without data centers, and home values grew 95% versus 64% over the past decade. Employment also grew 16% from 2014 to 2024 in high-concentration counties, compared with just 2% in counties without data centers. At the same time, residential electricity rates increased faster in counties with 10 or more data centers, 21.4% from 2020 to 2024, compared with 15.7% elsewhere.