NAR: 10 Counties Hold 42% of US Data Centers, Home Values Diverge

Ten US counties hold 42% of the country’s data centers, and those counties carry a median home value of $431,750 against $174,500 in counties with none, according to a new National Association of Realtors report. Loudoun and Prince William counties in Virginia alone account for 19 percentage points of that 42%, and 92% of US counties have no data centers at all.

Why it matters

For developers weighing a data center site against the land-value and community-opposition fight that now comes with it, NAR’s numbers are the first national count of just how concentrated this asset class already is. But the report is explicit that the gap is not proof data centers lift home values or push up power bills. NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said there is no single data center effect, and the report notes the counties that host the most data centers were already high-income, highly educated technology hubs before the current buildout, the kind of place with fiber, substations and available power that draws both hyperscalers and affluent homebuyers independently. That confound cuts against treating the price gap as a hosting bonus, and against treating the electricity-cost gap as pure data center cost-shifting. A site selector citing this report to a planning board should be prepared for the same rebuttal: correlation across county types, not a measured cause.

The numbers

The 10 counties with the most data centers hold 42% of all facilities nationwide, and Loudoun and Prince William counties together account for about 19% of that total, per NAR. Median home value in counties with 10 or more data centers is $431,750, versus $174,500 in counties with none. Employment in the high-concentration counties grew 16% from 2014 to 2024, against 2% in counties without data centers. Residential electricity prices in the data-center counties rose 21.4% from 2020 to 2024, compared with 15.7% elsewhere. NAR surveyed its own members alongside the county data and found mixed views on residential impact, with 25% reporting a positive effect on nearby home values and 22% reporting a negative one.

What’s next

NAR is hosting a research summit on data centers and real estate on September 15, where Yun and other economists plan to dig further into siting and pricing effects by market. For developers and planning boards, the report gives both sides of the entitlement fight a real number to argue over: a documented value premium in host counties, and NAR’s own caveat that the premium predates the data centers. Follow ongoing coverage in national markets.